Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) on Thursday signed a bill requiring the state’s five abortion clinics to be regulated like sex offenders, The Guardian reported.
Under the bill, known as SB 205, clinics must be located more than 2,000 feet away from any K-8 public schools—the same restriction placed on registered sex offenders.
When state Sen. Paul Sanford (R) first introduced SB 205 in the state legislature in March, he argued that it would protect children from undue “commotion” caused by the clinics.
“We can put a restriction on whether a liquor store opens up across the street and make sure pedophiles stay away from schools,” Sanford said at the time. “I just think having an abortion clinic that close to elementary-age school children that actually have to walk on the sidewalk past it is not the best thing.”
His bill, which could force two of the state’s clinics to shut down, passed the state House last week by a sweeping 73-19 vote.
Now that Bentley has signed it into law, both the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville and another clinic in Tuscaloosa may be forced to close due to their proximity to public schools. The Huntsville clinic is the only one serving north Alabama, and was already forced to relocate in 2014 to comply with the building standards outlined under the the Alabama Women’s Health and Safety Act.
These two clinics combined accounted for 72 percent of the 6,848 abortions performed in the state in 2014, according to Alabama health department data.
Nikema Williams, vice-president of public policy for Planned Parenthood Southeast, told The Guardian that the goal of bills like SB 205 was to “make abortion inaccessible in any circumstance across the country, all under the guise of concern for women’s health.”
The non-profit Guttmacher Institute reports that as of 2011, there were no abortion clinics in 93 percent of Alabama counties, restricting access to the procedure for the 59 percent of Alabama women who live in those counties.
