Alabama sets adoption record amid abortion debate
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Alabama's adoption record is getting attention after the Southern state passed the most restrictive abortion ban in the country.
After Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law that made performing an abortion after six weeks a felony unless it was necessary for the health of the mother, the law immediately came under fire.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Anti-Trump celebrity Chelsea Handler slammed the law in a post that said “protecting the unborn, yet having no regard for the children in this country who are actually alive…if you’re not doing something, you’re doing nothing. Now is the time to get involved.”
The bill, which closely resembles the "heartbeat" abortion laws passed in several other states, was quickly criticized for protecting children in the womb but not doing anything for them once they are born.
But pro-life activists are pointing to Alabama's adoption record to show the state does care about the well-being of its children.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Alabama recently set a new record for its work in foster care adoptions.
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"It sends a strong, wonderful message to all the foster care children in our state," Ivey said when she announced the accomplishment last year, AL.com reports.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DHR Commissioner Nancy Buckner said about 70 percent of foster children return to their biological families.
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"But those that don't, they need their own loving, caring, permanent family and that's what it's all about," she explained, saying the uptick could be due to help from juvenile courts, judges, and the DHR.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Andrew T. Walker, director of research and senior fellow in Christian Ethics at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said Alabama should be a national model.
"I do not know what is in the water in Alabama, but I want it spread throughout the rest of the US: Restricting abortion and increasing adoption," he wrote on Twitter. "This is what a consistent ethic of life looks like.
This news comes amid the fierce abortion debate fueled by the state's law, CBN News reported.
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"Banning abortion does not stop abortion. It stops safe abortion," Staci Fox, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said a week ago during a protest outside the Alabama Capitol.
Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Friday, in a legal battle that could eventually land before the Supreme Court.
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Heading to the high court is exactly what state officials want.
GOP State Rep. Terri Collins told The Washington Post the bill was "about challenging Roe v. Wade and protecting the lives of the unborn because an unborn baby is a person who deserves love and protection."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Collins said she feels for rape and incest victims, but had to ensure the bill was restrictive enough to yield a legal challenge in federal court.