An Alabama lawmaker proposed legislation Monday that would prevent abortion clinics from being located near schools. State Sen. Paul Sanford (R) compared the restriction to requiring sex offenders to avoid areas where young children are concentrated, like schools and playgrounds.
“We can put a restriction on whether a liquor store opens up across the street and make sure pedophiles stay away from schools,” Sanford (pictured) told the local Times Daily newspaper. “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.”
According to the Times Daily, the proposed bill would require the one abortion clinic in north Alabama to move for the second time in two years. AL.com reported that the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives was first forced to relocate in 2014 to comply with the building standards outlined under the the Alabama Women’s Health and Safety Act.
Sanford argued that the new location, which is across the street from a middle school, exposes children to undue “commotion.”
He told the Times Daily that he was not attempting to limit the number of abortion clinics in Alabama. But he insisted that they should not be located across the street from a school “because they do tend to cause a certain amount of commotion on a regular basis.”
As of 2015, Alabama had only five licensed abortion clinics across the state.
h/t RH Reality Check
