Roy Moore apologists believe there's no choice.

Because of ... choice.

Because of politics, and abortion. Because in their mind Doug Jones is running around Alabama's back alleys with a coat hanger and a get outta pregnancy free card.

I get it. It makes for an easy rationalization. It's possible, as Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey did, to find Roy Moore's accusers credible and still find the audacity to support him only when you can point to some higher calling on the back end.

Like life.

Or politics.

But mostly life.

Because Alabama loves life. Alabamians will scream for life and fight for life and punch you in the face for the very point of it. I can respect that. No one, including Jones, is eager to go out and encourage abortions.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (Bob Gathany / bgathany@AL.com)

But if Alabama really loves life enough to disregard the word of nine women who say Roy Moore - as a full grown man - hit on them or worse as teenagers, Alabama needs to look at itself.

Ivey hangs with him even though she doesn't doubt the woman who said Moore stripped her darn near naked when she was 14 and laid her out on blankets in his living room like a picnic. She needs to look at herself.

It's time to put up or shut up.

Life, you say?

Alabama is 49th - that's next to last, for those keeping score - when it comes to infant mortality. Alabama babies die at a rate 50 percent higher than the nation as a whole. And the nation's infant mortality rate is a travesty.

Out of every 1,000 live births in Alabama last year, more than nine babies in Alabama died before reaching a year old, according to the Alabama Health Department. That's 537 babies in one year who did not live.

In a state that would not expand Medicaid. In a state where four of every 10 children are covered by Medicaid. In a state that is, when policy is at stake, far more interested in keeping taxes low for the elite and powerful than providing health care to the vulnerable.

Because of politics.

Alabama is 48th or 49th in pre-term birth, low birthweight babies and bad infant outcomes overall, according to United Health Foundation's state health rankings. And - I guess this is relevant here -- Alabama has a bottom five ranking in protective home environments for children ages 6-17.

Alabama cares about children in concept, but not reality.

Because of choices it makes every day.

Rural hospitals across Alabama are falling like dominoes, in part because of the state's refusal to expand Medicaid. The most recent closure was Lakewood Community Hospital in Haleyville, the only hospital in Winston County.

The hospital in Ivey's hometown of Camden in Wilcox County - one of the poorest counties in Alabama with an infant mortality rate far higher than the national average - closed in August.

Because of politics.

So I hear evangelical preachers say they'd vote for Roy Moore even if he did worse than all these women claim. I hear his apologists say what is at stake is more important than his creepiness with young women.

I hear them speak with passion about precious life, and the unborn, and beautiful blessing of children.

And I respect that, and appreciate that, and second it.

And I call B.S.

Because in the end Alabama is quick to talk a good game about God, and life, and the unborn.

But decisions are made because of politics and money and privilege. And not life.

Choose consistency, Alabama, and a little decency. Put up or shut up.

John Archibald's column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.