Democratic Alabama Sen. Doug Jones took a bold stance against his own former client, Democratic Alabama State Rep. John Rogers, on Thursday after Rogers suggested Donald Trump Jr. should have been aborted. “The rhetoric of Rep. John Rogers gets more appalling each time he speaks. He does not speak for the people of Alabama and is in fact offending all Alabamians with his crude and reprehensible comments,” Jones tweeted. The rhetoric of Rep. John Rogers gets more appalling each time he speaks. He does not speak for the people of Alabama and is in fact offending all Alabamians with his crude and reprehensible comments. https://t.co/ZLI8e83Z2d — Doug Jones (@DougJones) May 2, 2019 Rogers sparked considerable backlash Wednesday after he argued that abortion was necessary because “unwanted or unloved” children were far more likely to turn to lives of crime and thus more likely to end up on death row. “You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later,” he said. (RELATED: Catholic Mom And Legendary Porn Star Agree: Killing Babies Is Bad) After being called out by Donald Trump Jr, who called the comments “stomach curling” and “truly sickening,” Rogers doubled down. He laughed, calling Trump Jr. “evidently retarded or crazy,” and saying that his existence was a good argument for abortion. “He’s evidently retarded or crazy.” Alabama lawmaker responds to @DonaldJTrumpJr‘s reaction to abortion commentshttps://t.co/EPvaOJ64rK pic.twitter.com/RqbQdNqZ2c — WVTM 13 (@WVTM13) May 2, 2019 Jones, who reportedly served as Rogers’ attorney as recently as 2010, was one of three Senate Democrats willing to break with the party and vote in favor of the GOP-led Abortion Survivors Born Alive Act. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania joined Jones in that move. Follow Virginia on Twitter<doc-sep>A Democratic state representative from Alabama shocked listeners nationwide this week when he argued against an abortion ban by saying “some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or kill them later.” “You bring them into the world unwanted, unloved, then you send them to the electric chair. So you kill them now or you kill them later,” state Rep. John Rogers said on Tuesday, apparently talking about black children in Alabama. Rogers was arguing against a bill that would ban abortion outright in Alabama, and allow punishments for abortion providers up to 99 years in prison. The bill passed the Republican-controlled House on Tuesday and now moves to the Senate, according to CNN. Rogers’s comments, which were captured on video by the local news channel WVTM, sparked criticism from observers across the political spectrum. “Not only were his remarks reprehensible, they are a complete distraction from the real work still left to be done in this state,” said Staci Fox, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates, in a statement to media on Thursday. “The people of Alabama deserve better.” Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, described the comments on Twitter as “stomach curling.” Rogers then sparked further backlash by calling him “retarded” and saying he should have been aborted. Rogers’s comments come just a few months after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, also a Democrat, touched off a nationwide controversy with confusing comments on an abortion bill in his state. Northam said that after a baby is born, a “discussion” could occur between parents and doctors about what to do next, which some critics took as an endorsement of infanticide. His remarks helped give rise to a wave of bills to protect abortion “survivors” around the country, which abortion rights supporters say could criminalize doctors. Meanwhile, total abortion bans like the one in Alabama are also proliferating around the country, as are “heartbeat” bills that could ban the procedure as early as six weeks. It’s not clear whether Rogers’s comments will have the same reach as Northam’s. But they appear to have had the opposite of the effect he intended — drawing criticism of the abortion rights cause and pulling attention away from the problems, including lack of health care access, that are killing Alabamians. Rogers was trying to support abortion rights. Instead, he created a nationwide firestorm. Rogers, who has represented Alabama’s 52nd District in the state House since 1982, made his comments on the House floor Tuesday in opposition to Alabama HB 314, which would make performing an abortion a Class A felony in the state. The bill does not include exceptions for rape or incest. He led up to his inflammatory remarks by talking about black children in the state who are taken from their parents by Child Protective Services and end up committing crimes, going to prison, and being executed. “They get in trouble, and we electrocute them,” he said. “Whether you kill them early, or kill them later, doesn’t matter.” Rogers also said that the decision to get an abortion should “be a woman’s choice” and that “some old men shouldn’t be sitting around telling a woman what to do with her body.” The backlash to Rogers’s comments about killing was swift. “Representative Rogers’ remarks are chilling,” said Alabama Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed in a statement on Wednesday. “His comments should be condemned at the state and national level.” “Americans are justly outraged by John Rogers’ vile comments, but we should be no less outraged by the reality that abortion kills children,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, in a statement on Friday. Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, tweeted that “every Democrat running for President needs to be asked where they stand” on Rogers’s comments. This is stomach curling and makes Ralph Northam look like a moderate on abortion. Every Democrat running for President needs to be asked where they stand on this. The extreme turn we've seen from Dems on abortion recently is truly sickening. https://t.co/KchZfqvQMK — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 1, 2019 Rogers, who has not responded to Vox’s request for comment, explained his comments on Thursday in an interview with Alabama news website AL.com. He implied that lawmakers were hypocritical for wanting to ban abortion when other policies and proposals in Alabama, such as hospital closures, mass incarceration, and forced drug testing for food stamp recipients, could result in the deaths of residents. “The state of Alabama is killing people every day,” he said. “You’re going to tell a woman she can’t make a decision about incest and rape? She can’t have an abortion? That’s a woman’s choice.” But Rogers was more combative in responding to Trump Jr. in an interview with WVTM. “His mother should have aborted him when he was born and he wouldn’t have made that stupid statement,” Rogers said. “He’s evidently retarded.” “Sadly, vile comments like this have become par for the course for the Democrat Party,” said a spokesperson for Trump Jr. in response, according to Newsweek. “I hope every elected Democrat in the country has the common decency and moral courage to disavow these types of grotesque statements from members of their party.” Democrats and abortion rights groups have disavowed the comments. Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones tweeted that Rogers “does not speak for the people of Alabama.” The rhetoric of Rep. John Rogers gets more appalling each time he speaks. He does not speak for the people of Alabama and is in fact offending all Alabamians with his crude and reprehensible comments. https://t.co/ZLI8e83Z2d — Doug Jones (@DougJones) May 2, 2019 “As we speak, Alabamians are dying from real public health problems that need our attention and we will not allow one man’s repulsive rant to distract us from the real issues at hand,” said Fox, the Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates president. Rogers’s comments come at an incredibly high-stakes time in the abortion debate Rogers’s comments are reminiscent of comments made by Northam in January, over a bill that would have broadened the circumstances under which a patient could get an abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy.<doc-sep>“Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or kill them later,” he said. “You bring them into the world unwanted, unloved, then you send them to the electric chair. So you kill them now or you kill them later. But the bottom line is that I think we shouldn’t be making this decision.”<doc-sep>An Alabama lawmaker is defending comments that on Wednesday quickly shook the hornet’s nest of the abortion ban debate. “So you kill them now or you kill them later. You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later,” State Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, said in a video posted on Twitter. On Thursday, Rogers defended the statement, arguing Alabama does not value life despite the House having just passed what some say is one of the strictest abortion laws in America. “We’ve closed 13 rural hospitals in this state. Including Cooper Green. We have put hundreds of people in jail. Making it hard for you to get food stamps. In other words, if you’re on drug tests, you can’t get food stamps,” Rogers said Thursday. “And then you’ve got at least two people a night dying in our Alabama prisons. It just doesn’t make sense. So why do you want to bring these people in the world and then deny them the right to process and live in Alabama?” The original statements quickly prompted an intense backlash. “This is one of the most horrific statements I’ve ever heard from an elected official, and it follows the previous disgusting comments from Governor Northam in Virginia,” U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne said in a statement. “The American people must put our foot down and say enough is enough. Every single life is precious and worth fighting for. I’m disappointed Alabama has a Senator in Doug Jones who is unabashedly pro-abortion and refuses to stand up to this type of extremism from members of his own party. Alabama deserves a 100% pro-life voice representing us in the Senate." This is stomach curling and makes Ralph Northam look like a moderate on abortion. Every Democrat running for President needs to be asked where they stand on this. The extreme turn we've seen from Dems on abortion recently is truly sickening. https://t.co/KchZfqvQMK — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 1, 2019 “Representative Rogers’ remarks are chilling. ‘Kill them now, or you kill them later’? His comments should be condemned at the state and national level,” Alabama Senate Majority Leader Sen. Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said in a statement. “Every human life, no matter how weak or small, has inherent dignity because we are all made in the image of God. House Bill 314, which the House passed 74-3, recognizes and protects the dignity of human life, and the Alabama Senate looks forward to debating and voting on this important pro-life measure in the coming days.” The "Human Life Protection Act,” or HB314, approved in the Alabama House of Representatives and now pending in the Senate, would make performing - by a doctor or someone else - an abortion a Class A Felony, punishable by 20 to 99 years in prison, or attempting to perform an abortion a Class C felony. The bill makes no exceptions for a pregnancy as a result of rape or incest, but does make exceptions for “serious health risk[s] to the unborn child’s mother.” The bill compares the number of aborted fetuses to the those who died in the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. Full coverage of the abortion debate in Alabama Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, said HB314’s purpose is solely to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe V. Wade. During the House debate Tuesday, she tabled two possible amendments to the bill aimed at changing the rape and incest language because it would hinder the bill’s chances of being challenged by the Supreme Court. Collins said she hopes after the Supreme Court overturns Roe V. Wade Alabama will be able to make a completely different law that determines abortion laws in the state. Rogers on Thursday argued the bill intrudes on a woman’s right to make decisions about her own health and will likely lead to a costly lawsuit for Alabama. Instead, Rogers said, Alabama should focus on expanding Medicaid and keeping rural hospitals open. “For the state not to do for its poor people, is killing them every day in this state. And then paying $1.8 million to fight a lawsuit they might, probably going to lose. That’s what I’m saying. You’re killing me now or killing me later or killing me later. You’re killing me anyway.” Edited at 11:35 a.m. to add Sen. Greg Reed’s title.<doc-sep>
An Alabama representative has been criticized for his "stomach curling" comments he made while opposing a bill which would criminalize nearly all abortions in the state. Democrat John Rogers was voicing his disapproval to the GOP-controlled House of Representatives in Alabama about the bill making it a felony offense for a woman to have an abortion unless her health is at risk. The bill would also make it a class C felony for a doctor to attempt to perform an abortion where there is no health risk for the woman. House Bill 314, sponsored by State Rep. Terri Collins, was passed by 74 to 3, with many Democrats refusing to take part in the vote in protest, reports Alabama Political Reporter. Speaking in the chamber, Rodgers said abortion should be a woman's choice, adding: "Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or you kill them later. "You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, and you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later," Rogers continued. "I may bring a bill to force all men to have vasectomies. That would end this whole debate. There would be no more abortions and eventually no more voters." After a clip of the comments were posted onto social media, several Republicans and high-profile conservatives condemned Rogers. "This is stomach curling and makes Ralph Northam look like a moderate on abortion," the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted. "Every Democrat running for President needs to be asked where they stand on this. The extreme turn we've seen from Dems on abortion recently is truly sickening." Rep. Bradley Byrne posted a clip of Rogers' remarks on Twitter to attack his and Sen. Doug Jones' pro-abortion stances. "It's an abomination that Alabama has a Senator in @DougJones who is unabashedly pro-abortion & refuses to stand up to this type of extremism from members of his party in defense of innocent human life," Byrne wrote. "Alabama deserves a 100% pro-life voice representing us in the US Senate." Henry Rodgers, a writer for the right-wing Daily Caller website, also described Rogers as "sick in the head." Collins defended her restrictive bill while speaking on the House floor. "This bill is focused on that baby that's in the womb that is a person," Collins said, reports NPR. "That baby, I believe, would choose life." The ACLU of Alabama said they will be prepared to fight the bill if the state Senate passes it. "We are disappointed that the Alabama House passed HB314 despite the fact it would criminalize abortion and interfere with a woman's personal, private medical decisions. It is unfortunate that members of the House are putting their personal beliefs ahead of what's in the best interest of our state," an ACLU of Alabama spokesperson added. "The people of Alabama are paying the bill for unconstitutional legislation and we hope that the Senate members will realize its detrimental impact and stop this bill from becoming law. Otherwise it will be challenged in federal court."