"Personhood" Bill For Alabama?

Do you think life begins at fertilization?

You may have a chance to vote on that question in Alabama.

Voters in Mississippi defeated a constitutional amendment saying life beings at conception.

An Alabama state senator says he will soon bring up a similar bill in Alabama's state legislature.

The defeat of amendment in Mississippi hasn't deterred Alabama State Senator Phil Williams from pushing for a similar proposal.

Williams got an similar bill through the Senate this past year, but it didn't come up for a floor vote in the House.

He said his bill says life begins at the moment of fertilization, and implantation into the womb.

Williams said, "The issue of implantation in the womb was the only way we were able to get it out of committee and begin to move forward on it, because there were concerns that this, in some way, would prevent in vitro fertilization. I personally disagree with that, but the reality was we felt like it was still a major win if we could move forward with that language."

The legislator from Rainbow City has already pre-filed legislation for next year's legislative session.

But, he said he'll probably substitute it with a constitutional amendment version that would require the approval of voters.

Williams said he's confident that will happen, and that it will be upheld by the courts.

He said, "Number one, I think that this is a matter of state's rights, that we can do this, and, I think that this is something that Alabamians would want."

Senator Rusty Glover of Semmes said he's aware of the legislation, but wants to make sure it doesn't meet the same fate as the Mississippi version.

Glover said, "There's pro-life people in Mississippi that voted against the amendment yesterday. We need to find out why they voted against that amendment, and fix the bill, so that it would have the same substance that people thought it had."

It won't be long before Alabama legislators are talking about the issue.

The regular session starts in February.

Alabama law currently bans abortions after 20 weeks into pregnancy.