Alabama has passed a law that bans dismemberment abortion, otherwise known as dilation and extraction (D&E) abortion, while leaving other forms of killing unborn children legal.
Alabama becomes the fifth state to ban dismemberment abortions following similar measures taken in Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Mississippi. Similar legislation is pending in Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, and Nebraska, according to LifeSite News.
However, the new Alabama law does not ban other abortion methods, as it "does not include an abortion which uses suction to dismember the body of the developing unborn child by sucking fetal parts into a collection container." Suction aspiration abortions are common in the first trimester, the Christian News Network reports.
Gov. Robert Bentley signed into law SB 363, which was passed by the state House of Representatives in a 74-26 vote last week and by the state Senate last month, Under the new law, it is illegal "for any individual to purposely perform or attempt to perform a dismemberment abortion and thereby kill an unborn child unless necessary to prevent serious health risk to the unborn child's mother."
Also exempted from the law are abortions performed because of rape or incest.
Those found guilty under the law will be fined $10,000 or imprisoned for not more than two years, or both.
It defines dismemberment abortion as a method where the purpose is to cause death to the unborn child through extraction of one body piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clams, grasping forceps, tongs and scissors.
Planned Parenthood criticised the bill as a way of banning second trimester abortions completely in the state.
"The goal is to make abortion inaccessible in any circumstance across the country, all under the guise of concern for women's health," said Nikema Williams, vice-president of public policy for Planned Parenthood Southeast.
The Alabama legislature also passed SB 205, which bans the establishment of abortion clinics within 2,000 feet of a K-8 public school.
"The Alabama Department of Public Health may not issue or renew a health center license to an abortion clinic or reproductive health center that performs abortions and is located within 2,000 feet of a K-8 public school," the bill reads.
As a result, two abortion clinics in Huntsville and Tuscaloosa, located within 2,000 feet of a school, may be forced to close down. The two clinics performed 72 percent of abortions in Alabama in 2014, Reuters reports.
