Thread: Some new state legislation will go into effect Sunday - AL

montgomeryadvertiser.com
Written by
Brian Lyman
1:21 AM, Dec. 31, 2011

State laws going into effect Sunday include portions of controversial bills on immigration and abortion.

Starting Sunday, businesses wishing to obtain contracts, grants or incentives from the state must be enrolled in the federal E-Verify program, which checks the immigration status of would-be employees. The law also requires subcontractors to enroll in E-Verify.

Most of the state's immigration law was scheduled to go into effect Sept. 1, but U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn temporarily blocked the law a few days prior in order to consider legal challenges.

Blackburn allowed most of the law to go into effect in late September but enjoined some portions of it. Federal courts have since blocked other provisions.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Arizona E-Verify system last May. Alabama's provisions have not been challenged in the lawsuits against the state's immigration law.

On April 1, all businesses in the state will be required to enroll in E-Verify. The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has started a service at http://immigration.alabama.gov aimed at helping employers with the verification process.

New abortion reporting requirements will also go into effect Sunday under a law passed in the final hours of the 2011 regular session by the Alabama Legislature.

The law, sponsored by state Rep. Kerry Rich, R-Albertville, bans abortions from 20 weeks after "probable post-fertilization" except in cases of medical emergency. Previously, abortion was banned after fetal viability, defined by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade as occurring be*tween the 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy.

The State Center for Health Statistics said 70 of the 10,280 abortions in Alabama in 2010 -- 0.6 percent of the procedures -- took place at the 20th week of gestation or after, the prior definition of abortion.

The ban went into effect in September; the added reporting requirements go into effect Sunday. Among other changes, physicians who perform abortions after 20 weeks will be required to list the medical reason for the abortion and whether the method used provided the opportunity to save the fetus.

The reports will be kept confidential, but will be available to the state attorney general, district attorneys or courts in all criminal and some civil investigations. Women receiving abortions will not be named in the reports.

"There's nothing that would identify the woman, and there never has been," said Cathy Molchan Donald, director of the Alabama Center for Health Statistics. "If we have to call back a clinic, we have to give a special number. We have no idea who the woman is."

Other bills going into effect include legislation that:

Requires the notification of crime victims and relatives at least 30 days before an offender appears for a hearing before the Board of Pardons and Paroles. A message left with the board on the requirement was not returned Friday.

Prohibits the alteration of identification numbers on vessel registration;

Allows unsworn declarations made outside the country to be valid under certain conditions if the declaration is signed under penalty of perjury;

Specifies the use of expert testimony in court;

Provides for transfer of certain vehicles without titles to dismantlers, parts recyclers or secondary metals recyclers.

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