Forty-six Alabama state legislators have joined a class-action lawsuit calling for an end to abortion in the state because it disproportionately victimizes unborn African American children.

Sam McLure, plaintiffs’ attorney for “Baby Q,” filed the lawsuit Oct. 16 in Montgomery County Circuit Court against Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Attorney General Steve Marshall (both Republicans), and all abortion clinics in the state.

At a press conference from the Alabama State House Feb. 9, McLure, joined by state legislators and members of the Alabama Republican Executive Committee, charged that the governor and attorney general had failed to uphold the state’s laws defending the unborn.

Alabama Constitutional Amendment 930, which “explicitly recognizes and protects the rights of unborn children in the state, granting them equal protection under the law,” was passed by more than 60% of Alabama voters.

Subsequently, Gov. Ivey signed the Alabama Human Life Protection Act of 2018 that prohibits abortion procedures for an “unborn child in utero at any stage of development.”

A federal judge has since declared the act unconstitutional.

“It’s a remarkable day where Alabama has come from,” McLure said. “Between 1800 and 1840, Alabama grew from 40,000 unjustly stolen slaves to 400,000, over two dozen slave licenses active in the city of Montgomery. We’ve come from there, people, to now you have 46 members of the Alabama legislature standing up, standing on the principles of protecting the weak and the vulnerable, and saying no more, interposing themselves for the arresting of evil to protect preborn African American babies.”

McLure said the Baby Q class-action lawsuit appeals to the U.S. Constitution’s Ninth Amendment, which prohibits the Constitution from abridging or abrogating rights previously protected by common law. Furthermore, he said, the 10th Amendment states that matters not specifically addressed in the Constitution are the jurisdiction of the states.

In justifying their case for the lawsuit, the plaintiffs have pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion, when justices acknowledged that the U.S. Constitution “is silent” about the rights of the unborn.

“Alabama values personhood in the womb,” McLure said. “The Alabama legislature moved to the front of the line, raised their hand and volunteered, when they passed the Human Life Protection Act that eliminated, outlawed and abolished abortion, yet 120 children die every week in Alabama because of abortion.”

McLure charged further that the “root of the abortion industry” was founded in eugenics—the “most insidious racial worldview you can imagine.”

“The founders of Planned Parenthood specifically designed and implemented a plan to place abortion clinics in low-income neighborhoods to eradicate racial minorities,” he said. 

“The history is undeniable,” McLure told Baptist Press. “That was the intended purpose of the abortion industry and continues to be the outcome of the abortion industry, where 60% of the abortions in Alabama come from African American mothers, and [blacks] only represent 27% of the population.”

At the press conference, Rep. Arnold Mooney called on the governor and attorney general to enforce Alabama Constitutional Amendment 930, which recognizes “the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.”

“As legislators, it is our job to enforce the laws of our state as best we can, especially an amendment passed overwhelmingly by the people of our state,” Mooney said. “The failure to do so can be very costly and deadly, and in fact, it is. Since 2018, 15,000 unborn children have been aborted in our state.”

McLure said it’s a lie and a myth that the Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing abortion prevents states from enforcing pro-life legislation approved by its voters.

Citing the 10th Amendment, McLure said, “those powers not delegated to the federal government, not enumerated in the Constitution, are strictly reserved to the states. If the people of Colorado and the governor of Colorado have enough courage to stand up to overreaching federal law, to smoke marijuana, can we not ask our elected officials to have as much courage to protect children?”