Fetuses need a lawyer...or so says this controversial new law

Here's an uncomfortable question: Do fetuses need a lawyer to protect them from their own mothers?

In Alabama, legislators and pro-life activists believe they do. They enacted a law in July 2014 permitting courts to appoint a lawyer or advocate to represent an embryo or fetus when its teenage mother seeks an abortion without parental consent

The new law is an amendment to the state's parental consent requirement, which pointedly explains why the government's role in regulating abortions for minors:

It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this parental consent provision to further the important and compelling state interests of: (1) protecting minors against their own immaturity, (2) fostering the family structure and preserving it as a viable social unit, and (3) protecting the rights of parents to rear children who are members of their household. Read more...

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