On Tuesday, the Alabama House of Representatives approved legislation that will outlaw nearly all abortions in the state, with no exceptions for instances of rape or incest, at any stage of pregnancy.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, said the bill is meant to challenge Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion across the nation.

House Democrats attempted to add an amendment to the legislation that would provide exemptions for rape or incest, but House Republicans defeated the measure by a 72-26 vote.

Expecting legal challenges that will result from the bill, Democrats were also stymied in their attempts to amend the bill to include language that would require supporters of the legislation to cover the cost of legal fees with their personal salaries.

When a vote for the bill became imminent, many House Democrats left the floor and held a press conference.

Rep. Prince Chestnut, D-Selma, echoed many of the concerns voiced by House Democrats during yesterday’s debate and in the days leading up to a vote on the controversial legislation.

“Roe v. Wade, regardless of your feelings on abortion, is the law of the land,” Chestnut said.

For his part, Chestnut expects for the bill to face court challenges and eventually go before the U.S. Supreme Court, where he believes justices will uphold the decades-old ruling.

“As a lawyer and former judge, I do not see a scenario where smart justices, who have lived almost monastic lifestyles studying law, being careful and making calculated moves to become Supreme Court justices, would all of a sudden abandon their legal training, adopt a hyperbolic political mindset and place the judicial branch of government into an inferior status as just another ‘political’ branch of government,” Chestnut said. “I do not believe that Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh or Chief Justice [John] Roberts want their legacies to be one of contempt for the decisions of justices who preceded them over the last decade.”

Much of the strategy employed by Alabama Republicans in pushing the legislation has been to intentionally draft a bill that contradicts long-standing judicial norms in order to force a decision by the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court.

“I believe this abortion bill is simply a shot across the bow to signal to the voters exactly what Alabama will do in case Roe v. Wade is overturned in its entirety,” Chestnut said. “The problem is that jumping the gun and passing a law that is unconstitutional on its face, as it directly contradicts 40-plus years of legal precedent, is irresponsible.”

Chestnut said the ensuing court battles will “cost the state millions of dollars of taxpayer money” and that Republican legislators could have simply bided their time to see how similar court battles involving laws in Mississippi, Ohio and Kentucky play out.

“It just reeks of political posturing and will do nothing to change the current state of the law,” Chestnut said of the bill. “Instead, the citizens of Alabama will get a huge legal bill. This taxpayer money could be better used to help schools, law enforcement and the elderly.”