Alabama Dem grills GOP colleague on abortion bill: ‘Do you know what it’s like to be raped?’

Alabama state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures (D) is going viral online after a video emerged showing her grilling a Republican colleague on Tuesday over his support of a law that seeks to ban nearly all abortions in the state.

During her time on the floor ahead of the state chamber’s vote on the proposal, which would also ban abortions in cases of rape and incest, Figures asked one of the co-sponsors behind the bill, state Sen. Clyde Chambliss (R), if he knew what is was like to be raped.

{mosads}“Do you know what it’s like to be raped?” she could be seen asking.

“No, ma’am,” he said. “I don’t.”

“Do you know what it’s like to have a relative commit incest on you?” she continued.

“On me? No ma’am,” he said.

“OK. So, that’s one of those traumas that a person experiences,” she said, adding that “to take that choice away from that person who had such a traumatic act committed against them, to be left with the residue of that person, if you will, to have to bring that child into this world and be reminded of that ever single day, some people can do that. Some people can’t.”

“But some can’t,” she continued.

“Do you know what it’s like to be raped? Do you know what it’s like to have a relative commit incest on you?” Alabama State Sen. Vivian Davis Figures grilled her GOP counterpart as the Alabama Senate passed a near-total abortion ban. https://t.co/L8bY9wCOoo pic.twitter.com/HdkeTJ73li

— CNN (@CNN) May 15, 2019

According to CNN, when pressed by another Democratic colleague on Tuesday about what would happened to a child who was a victim of incest if she was found to be impregnated, Chambliss said: “What I hope is, if we pass this bill, that all young ladies would be educated by their parents, their guardians that should a situation like this occur, you need to go get help — you need to do it immediately.”

“Then also they can get justice in the situation. If they wait, justice delayed is justice denied,” he continued. 

Figures also reportedly fired off at Chambliss then saying: “You don’t have to raise that child, you don’t have to carry that child, you don’t have to provide for that child, you don’t have to do anything for that child.”

“But yet you want to make that decision for that woman, that that’s what she has to do,” she added.

On Tuesday night, the Alabama Senate passed the abortion law in a 25-6 vote. As many online have noted, all 25 of the legislators who voted for the measure are all white, Republican men.

The bill now heads to Gov. Kay Ivey’s (R) for consideration. She has not said publicly whether she will sign the bill.