Female Alabama lawmaker says a fetus is 'the largest organ in a woman's body'

A female Alabama lawmaker has said her state needs tougher restrictions on abortion clinics because a fetus is the 'largest organ' in a pregnant woman's body.

Mary Sue McClurkin, a Republican in the state House of Representatives, made the argument as she explained the justification of a law she proposed that would regulate her state's five abortion clinics similar to surgical clinics.



'When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body,' McClurkin, a married mother of three with three grandchildren, told the Montgomery Advertiser last week. 'That’s a big thing. That’s a big surgery. You don’t have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that.'

Not quite: Rep Mary Sue McClurkin, 66, claimed that a baby is an organ during an interview with an Alabama newspaper. She is the chairwoman of the state's education policy committee

Critics were quick to point out that a fetus is not considered an organ by doctors. And even if it were - it wouldn't be the largest organ in the body.



Fetuses begin developing organs of their own three weeks after conception.



Additionally, the average person's skin weighs, on average, eight pounds. The average newborn baby weighs about seven and a half pounds.

About 90 percent of abortions in the United States occur in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy - when the fetus weighs less than one ounce.



Tiny: Most abortions are performed before the 13th week of pregnancy, before the fetus weighs even one ounce. A newborn baby still weight less, on average, than a person's skin - the largest organ

Veteran lawmaker: McClurkin has served in the Alabama state House for 14 years

Regardless of the medical accuracy of McClurkin's comments, the remarks undermine the most recent rhetoric of the anti-abortion movement.

'Pro-life' groups have been arguing that fetuses are people - fully endowed with the Constitutional rights of infants and even adults.



The statement by McClurkin that a fetus is an organ runs counter to the argument that a fetus is an independent life.



McClurkin, 66, has represented Jefferson and Shelby counties in central Alabama for 14 years and serves as the chairwoman of the education policy committee.



The bill, which opponents says will force most of the state's abortion clinics to close, is expected to pass the Republican-controlled state government and be signed into law.



However, Rep Patricia Todd, a Democrat from Birmingham, who opposes the bill, said it's clear McClurkin and her supporters don't know what they're talking about.