This week Alabama passed the nation’s strictest abortion law. On Wednesday, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed the law and this is the announcement:

Today, I signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, a bill that was approved by overwhelming majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God.

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To all Alabamians, I assure you that we will continue to follow the rule of law.

In all meaningful respects, this bill closely resembles an abortion ban that has been a part of Alabama law for well over 100 years. As today’s bill itself recognizes, that longstanding abortion law has been rendered “unenforceable as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.”

No matter one’s personal view on abortion, we can all recognize that, at least for the short term, this bill may similarly be unenforceable. As citizens of this great country, we must always respect the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court even when we disagree with their decisions.  Many Americans, myself included, disagreed when Roe v. Wade was handed down in 1973. The sponsors of this bill believe that it is time, once again, for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit this important matter, and they believe this act may bring about the best opportunity for this to occur.

I want to commend the bill sponsors, Rep. Terri Collins and Sen. Clyde Chambliss, for their strong leadership on this important issue.

For the remainder of this session, I now urge all members of the Alabama Legislature to continue seeking the best ways possible to foster a better Alabama in all regards, from education to public safety. We must give every person the best chance for a quality life and a promising future.

The law was passed in order to challenge the 50-year old Roe v. Wade decision. Please pray that Roe v. Wade would finally be overturned.

You will certainly be interested in the interchange between Rick Santorum and Jeffrey Toobin on CNN, excerpted by Real Clear Politics:

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: I — for better or worse, I think I was right. I mean, look, Donald Trump said in the third debate with Hillary Clinton, if I get two or more appointments to the Supreme Court, automatically, that’s the word he used, automatically Roe v. Wade will be overturned, and I think the president was exactly right.

Roe v. Wade is gone and every woman in Alabama who gets pregnant is going to be forced to give birth soon, and that’s going to be true in Alabama. It’s going to be true in Missouri. It’s going to be true probably in Georgia, and that’s what the law is because that’s what the presidential election was about in part last time. . . . 

Well, I think they are going to rule on it, and I think they’re going to uphold it. I mean, this is what the fight has been about for years. I think that the legislators were very smart. They waited until they got five votes on the Supreme Court, and now they’re going to push this thing through. And Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch are going to be joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, and this is a victory Rick and others have been fighting for decades, and they’ve won and they should celebrate.

COOPER: Rick, Senator Santorum, does it —  I want you to respond to what Jeff said. Also, but — the idea that a rapist that gets someone pregnant could get less jail time than a doctor performing an abortion, does that make sense?

RICK SANTORUM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, yes, it does make sense, because we’re ignoring the other person in the situation, and that’s the child.

The rapist, according to the Supreme Court, someone who’s convicted of a violent, a horrible, I mean, just — whatever, doesn’t matter, all rapes are horrible, but you can take the most horrible rape and according to the Supreme Court, the death sentence is not — is cruel and unusual punishment, but the child who is conceived as a result of that can be killed.

And that to me is a house divided. You can’t say somebody commits a horrible crime, doesn’t receive a death sentence, but a child who’s innocent does. And that’s why you’re seeing — I mean, Anderson, I think people don’t realize this law, Roe versus Wade has been in effect for 50 years, yet this country is as divided as it is now as it was 50 years ago.

Why? Because this is wrong. And if this was such — and all of the prognosticators predicted within 10, 20 years, everybody is going to be for abortion. It didn’t happen, why? Because you’re killing a human being.

And it’s obvious to anybody because it’s a fact.

So now you see how fervently we should be praying, as this law winds its way through the legal processes leading up to a challenge to Roe v. Wade. And thank God for the people of Alabama holding to what is right.