Alabama House committee approves bill banning abortion-inducing medications

Brian Lyman, Montgomery Advertiser
·2 min read
Rep. Andrew Sorrell in the house chamber at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday March 11, 2021.
Rep. Andrew Sorrell in the house chamber at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday March 11, 2021.

An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved a bill that would ban the use of medication in inducing abortions.

The House Judiciary Committee approved the bill, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Sorrell, R-Muscle Shoals, on a voice vote after a brief debate. It would make it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a doctor to prescribe medication that would induce an abortion.

"I did not realize until one year ago that four out of 10 abortions today are committed with chemical abortion pills," Sorrell said. "We think of abortion as going to an abortion facility and having a surgical abortion. But the new trend in abortion is chemical abortion."

Kaitlin Welborn, an attorney with the ACLU in Alabama, condemned the legislation.

"Study after study has found that this medication is safer than either Tylenol or Viagra," Welborn said in a statement. "Let’s call this bill what it is: another excuse for the Alabama Legislature to play doctor and meddle in the healthcare options available to people in this state.”

According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, medically-induced abortions accounted for 44% of the 5,713 abortions reported in the state in 2020.

Sorrell's bill would ban RU-486, Mifepristone, Mifegyne, and Mifeprex, "or any substantially similar generic or non-generic abortifacient drug in Alabama."

The bill would not provide criminal penalties for a woman who used the medication in such a way. It would not ban the use of contraceptives like the morning after pill before a women knows she is pregnant.

Rep. Allen Farley, R-McCalla, wondered why the bill was in the House Judiciary Committee and not in the Health Committee, but voiced support for the bill. Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, suggested taking a series of legislative findings out of the bill, which Sorrell said he could support.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama House committee approves bill banning medication abortions