Televangelist Pat Robertson Says Alabama’s “Extreme” Abortion Law “Goes Too Far”
John Vibes, TMU
Waking Times
This week, multiple southern states have moved to ban abortion under very strict penalties, sparking backlash across the country.As The Mind Unleashed reported earlier this week, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed HB314 into law, a bill that outlaws nearly all abortion, and gives no exemption for cases of rape or incest. The bill also reclassifies abortion as a Class A felony, which is punishable by up to 99 years in prison for doctors who perform the procedure.
The bill was so harsh that it even had some unlikely conservative critics, including televangelist Pat Robertson. Robertson is strongly against abortion, but believes that the law obviously goes too far and is simply not reasonable enough to overturn Roe vs. Wade in the supreme court.
“I think Alabama has gone too far. It’s an extreme law and they want to challenge Roe vs. Wade but my humble view is that this is not the case we want to bring to the Supreme Court because I think this one will lose… The Alabama case, God bless them, they’re trying to do something, but I don’t think that’s the case that I’d want to bring to the Supreme Court,”Robertson said on his show “The 700 Club,” according to The Hill.
It seems that Robertson is mostly objecting to the law for strategic reasons, but if one of the most extreme conservative figures in the country understands that this is an extreme law, it should make supporters of this legislation reconsider what they are advocating.
As the controversy was still swirling from the passage of the Alabama law, Missouri passed their own anti-abortion legislation in the middle of the night just days later. Under the new Missouri bill, doctors performing the procedure could spend up to 15 years in prison.
The Missouri measure still needs to be voted on by the state House and then approved by Republican Governor Mike Parson before it becomes law. However, Parson strongly supports the bill and has promised to sign it, and the Missouri House is also expected to vote in favor of the bill.
“Thanks to the leaders in the House and Senate, we have the opportunity to be one of the strongest pro-life states in the country,” Parson said on Wednesday.
Missouri Stands for the Unborn http://t.co/HWMxd0pkje
— Governor Mike Parson (@GovParsonMO) May 15, 2019
Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Ohio have also recently passed laws banning abortion after heartbeat activity is detected. The ACLU has promised to fight back against these new laws in court.
BREAKING: Alabama’s legislature just passed a law that criminalizes doctors and makes abortion illegal.
Abortion is NOT a crime — it’s a constitutional right.
We will sue to stop this law from ever taking effect.
— ACLU (@ACLU) May 15, 2019
Rep. Terri Collins, of Decatur, who sponsored the Alabama bill, said that the purpose of the billis to challenge the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
“The heart of this bill is to confront a decision that was made by the courts in 1973 that said the baby in the womb is not a person. This bill addresses that one issue. Is that baby in the womb a person? I believe our law says it is. I believe our people say it is. And I believe technology shows it is,” Collins said.
Gov. Kay Ivey, who signed the bill into law, stated that she had similar goals.
“Many Americans, myself included, disagreed when Roe v. Wade was handed down in 1973. The sponsors of this bill believe that it is time, once again, for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit this important matter, and they believe this act may bring about the best opportunity for this to occur,” Ivey said.