An Alabama probate court recognized an aborted child as a person with rights this week, which enabled a father to sue an abortion clinic, its staff and a pharmaceutical company on behalf of his aborted child’s estate.
“We are very pleased with the court’s decision to recognize Baby Roe as a person who has a right to have her case heard. It is the first time in history, as far as we know, the voice of those who cannot speak for themselves has been heard in a court setting,” Laura Glidewell, a spokesperson for pro-life nonprofit Personhood Alabama, told The Daily Caller Wednesday.
“This case is through the work of those dedicated attorneys and a dedicated father, Ryan Magers,” Glidewell explained.
Magers’ attorney, Brent Helms, told the Caller Wednesday that this was the first part of a two-part case, saying, “The probate judge in Madison County Alabama recognized Baby Roe, an aborted fetus — as a person — and so that was a win.”
“Not only that,” he added, “but granted Baby Roe the opportunity then, by Alabama law, to sue on Baby Roe’s own behalf by and through Ryan Magers, who was named as Baby Roe’s administrator or personal representative. . . . So, now we have a wrongful death case, which is part two, essentially. And that allows Ryan to sue on his own behalf and then as the administrator of the estate of Baby Roe.”
A baby’s hand grasps an adult’s thumb/ Shutterstock/ Tashatuvango
Madison County Probate Judge Frank Barger was questioned when WHNT 19 News realized that “Baby Roe” — the name being used by the suit to recognize the aborted baby — was an unborn child when Barger was making his ruling.
In response to that concern, Helms said, “We didn’t hide the ball. . . . We’re upfront and honest and transparent as a fish tank.”
Helms explained that in a follow up to the petition called a Memorandum in Support of Letters of Administration, Baby Roe’s status as a fetus is clear.
The memorandum, as quoted by Helms and available to the public, says, “during the first trimester of pregnancy, Baby Roe’s mother aborted Baby Roe. So the petitioner, Baby Roe’s father, now submits Letters of Administration to open an estate for Baby Roe to sue for the wrongful death of a minor and/or to administer the estate of Baby Roe.”
“That’s the first paragraph of the memorandum,” said Helms. “We put that in there so that the judge reading the memorandum would recognize that Baby Roe was aborted during the first trimester and that we are trying to sue for wrongful death.”
Magers seeks a jury trial in what he and his attorney say is the wrongful death of Baby Roe. Magers filed the suit in Madison County in February, about two years after his girlfriend aborted Baby Roe at around six weeks’ gestation. He said that his girlfriend proceeded with the abortion despite him begging her to keep the baby, as WAAY 31 reported last month.
The Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives, unnamed people affiliated with the women’s center, and an unnamed pharmaceutical company are included as defendants in the wrongful death suit.
“I’m here for the men who actually want to have their bab[ies],” Magers told WAAY 31 at the time.
“It can further pursue not only me, but other fathers — other future fathers — can pursue it, as well,” he added this week.
Ultrasound of baby in the womb/ Shutterstock
Alabama’s Supreme Court recognized the personhood of unborn children from the moment of conception in 2016. (RELATED: More Than 20 States Sue Trump Administration Over Title X Abortion Funding ‘Gag’)
The ruling specifically addressed whether Alabama’s Wrongful Death Act “applied to pre-born children harmed by medical negligence before viability,” according to LifeSiteNews.
“The newly elected Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Tom Parker, has written some of the most powerful opinions on this issue that we have seen in the post Roe era, and we are very hopeful that Alabama will continue to lead the country in standing up for the rights of the pre-born,” Gualberto Garcia Jones, Esq. told The Daily Caller in an email.
Jones is the president of Personhood Alliance, a pro-life advocacy group that describes its mission as “the non-violent advancement of the recognition and protection of the God-given, inalienable right to life of all innocent human beings as legal persons, at every stage of their biological development and in every circumstance.”
“. . . While a lot of liberal states have been increasingly active in assaulting the pre-born’s personhood, in Alabama, they have consistently upheld the view that the pre-born child is a person deserving equal protection under the law,” Jones also said.
Pro-choice advocacy groups are expressing concerns about the decision.
“An Alabama court has become the first in the [United States] to grant ‘personhood’ rights to a fetus. This means the order of rights would be: 1. man who impregnated woman 2. fetus 3. PREGNANT PERSON. This is chilling — and completely unacceptable,” the National Association for the Repeal of Abortions Laws (NARAL) tweeted on Tuesday night.
The “order of rights” NARAL is referring to concerns the right to sue for an abortion that was not agreed upon by all parties involved. By the organization’s estimation, the probate court’s decision places the rights of a father and an unborn child over those of the mother.
“[Roe’s mother] is one voice among three in this scenario,” Ilyse Hogue, NARAL’s president tweeted yesterday. “The Court will determine how important her voice is, but the fact that two others argue legal standing is chilling.”
Helms anticipates that the case, which is currently in Alabama’s lowest state courts, will likely make its way to the state’s Supreme Court.
The clinic must respond to Magers’ wrongful death suit on or before April 1.
