- Eric Johnston, an attorney the founder of the Alabama Pro-Life Coalition, helped draft the strict anti-abortion bill that just passed in the Alabama Senate.
- The bill bans nearly all abortions, even in cases of rape and/or incest. If the bill is signed, it would be the most restrictive abortion law in the nation.
- Johnston’s Alabama Pro-Life Coalition pushed for the strict ban over a six-week ban – like Georgia’s new abortion law – because they wanted to recognize a life at the point of detectable conception, according to AL.com.
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The strict anti-abortion bill that just passed in the Alabama Senate was drafted by an activist who has spent more than 30 years trying to ban the practice.
The activist is Eric Johnston, an attorney the founder of the Alabama Pro-Life Coalition, according to the New York Times.
The bill, which first passed in the Alabama House of Representatives last month before passing in the Senate on Tuesday, bans nearly all abortions, even in cases of rape and/or incest. If the bill is signed, it would be the most restrictive abortion law in the nation.
Johnston’s Alabama Pro-Life Coalition pushed for the strict ban over a six-week ban – similar to Georgia’s new abortion law – because they wanted to recognize a life at the point of detectable conception, according to AL.com.
According to Johnston's website, the Alabama Pro-Life Coalition "specializes in legislation and lobbying of bills to protect unborn children, the health and well being of women, and the disabled, elderly or infirm on end of life issues."
Choose Life Alabama has been raising funds for the coalition's education fund by selling "Choose Life" license places as a "small but obvious pro-life rolling billboard," AL.com reported in 2015.
While advocating for the bill, Johnston pushed false theories about pregnancy, including the idea that when "a man and woman can have sex and you can take her straight into a clinic and determine an egg and sperm came together."
It takes about a week for even the most sensitive tests to detect a pregnancy after fertilization.
Johnston's comment was criticized online, with Lauren Kelley at the New York Times saying: "It's reasonable to expect that someone trying to legislate what pregnant people can do with their bodies would have a better grasp on the matter."
Johnston has made headlines for bill proposals before - he helped write anti-gay marriage laws that were ruled unconstitutional in Alabama in 2015.
He also wrote Amendment One, better known in Alabama as the "anti-Sharia law," which banned courts from considering "foreign law" in cases.
Read more:
- A state legislature that is 85% male passed the most extreme abortion ban in the US since Roe v. Wade
- Women deemed 'responsible' for having miscarriages could spend 30 years in prison under Georgia's new abortion law - but it's often impossible to determine the cause
- Women could get up to 30 years in prison for having a miscarriage under Georgia's harsh new abortion law
- The Alabama Senate floor broke out into a chaotic screaming match over a bill that would ban almost all abortions