When you're pushing for a bill that would essentially outlaw all abortions, the last thing you want to do is undermine your own argument.
That's exactly what Alabama Republican Mary Sue McClurkin did on Thursday when she called an unborn baby the 'largest organ in the human body.'
McClurkin made her remarks as a way to oppose abortion, claiming that by removing an unborn child, a woman was removing the largest organ in her body. The skin is the largest organ, weighing in excess of eight pounds for the average adult.
McClurkin's argument further hurts the cause of banning abortions in Alabama by calling the unborn baby an organ, instead of a person. The basis for many anti-abortion laws in states controlled by Republicans is declaring a zygote a human being, deserving of the same rights. Organs and body parts are not people under any definition of life.
Anti-abortion activists in Alabama have pushed for tighter regulations of abortion clinics, such as requiring hospital admitting privileges, similar to laws passed in Mississippi and North Dakota. These laws rely on abortions being unsafe when conducting outside of a hospital setting.
Researchers studied abortion clinics in 2009 and 2010, determining abortions performed in clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, are extremely safe. Opponents of the new laws proposed in Alabama suggest the purpose is not safety, but to ban abortion in violation of the Supreme Court.
If passed, the Alabama law would make it a felony to perform an abortion in the state without meeting all of the conditions laid out in the law.
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