Because too many people have messaged me or reblogged this (without doing any research at all) saying, “it’s not real” or “it’s just a joke”:
HB494 is a bill that was passed in April of 2014. This bill amends the Parental Consent/Judicial By-Pass law, allowing the courts to appoint a fetus attorney during a Judicial By-Pass. This is a real thing that has been passed. Also, this law specifically targets minors, who, under the law, need permission from either their parents or the courts to have an abortion.
HB494 Sections (d) and (e):
(d) “The Legislature further finds the public policy of the State of Alabama is to respect life and provide safeguards to protect life in the criminal, health, and other laws of the State of Alabama; that in respecting and protecting life, there is included the unborn life of a child whose life may be subject to termination before birth by abortion and that when the mother of said unborn life is a minor who seeks an abortion through the judicial by-pass procedure, it is the interest of the State of Alabama to not only establish and protect the rights of the minor mother, but also to protect the state’s public policy to protect unborn life; the protection of these interests is done, in part, by requiring judges to make determinations pursuant to the judicial by-pass procedure and to require said judges be provided with sufficient evidence and information upon which they may make informed and proper decisions.”
(e) “Alabama judges are called upon to make decisions not only respecting the lives of born persons, such as in capital punishment cases, but also respecting the lives of unborn persons, such as in judicial by-pass cases for minor abortions; it is always the Legislature’s intent to provide guidance to the Alabama courts on how life may be best protected.”
Inb4 pro-lifers say this is equal, it’s not. By giving a fetus the “same” rights as the person carrying them, you are effectively telling the pregnant person that their body is no longer theirs, they cannot make decisions for themselves and their body without seeking permission from the fetus, which is literally impossible (seeing as fetuses are non-sentient beings.)
If it wasn’t obvious enough that this is an anti-choice bill, eagerly passed to make safe access to abortion harder for minors, actually read the entire thing. It’s filled with nonsensical, emotionally manipulative language, and all in all, it’s just garbage that looks like it was written up by a high school pro-life group. How this got passed…. I’ll never know. - Paige