Last time Alabama lost an abortion case, it paid the American Civil Liberties Union enough money for 33 classroom teachers. Or 41 state troopers. Or 50 prison guards.

Now Alabama is preparing to do it again, with legislators putting the state forward as the costly test case in the federal battle between conservatives and civil rights groups. Today the Alabama Senate is expected to vote on a new abortion bill.

Back in 2016, the state paid $1.7 million to the ACLU after federal courts struck down a 2013 law that required abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges.

The new 2019 bill, which would amount to an almost total ban on abortion, is intended to trigger a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. That’s according to its House sponsor, Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur. The bill passed the House 74-3 earlier this month, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

While it was being considered in the House, Rep. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, proposed an amendment to require lawmakers who voted for the bill to pay legal costs of any resulting litigation. The House rejected that amendment 61-27.

In 2016, the same year Alabama paid $1.7 million over a failed abortion law, state legislators passed two more abortion laws that have been in litigation ever since. One of the laws would ban an abortion procedure most commonly used during the second trimester, and the other would prevent clinics that perform abortions from operating within 2,000 feet of public schools.

The ACLU then filed a lawsuit on behalf of two Alabama clinics. A federal judge blocked the 2016 laws as unconstitutional restrictions on abortion access, a decision later upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. In December 2018, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a 33-page petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Alabama’s appeal.

Because that case is still under appeal, it’s unclear how much the state might owe if it loses. It’s also unclear how much money the state has spent on its own attorneys defending the laws.

And it’s unclear how much taxpayer money a legal challenge to the 2019 abortion bill could cost if it becomes law.

Since 2013, Alabama has paid $3.72 million to the American Civil Liberties Union after losing or settling lawsuits related to state laws on abortion, same-sex marriage and immigration.

To put costs in perspective, here are a few budget items Alabama could fund for one year, with the $1.7 million it paid the ACLU for the 2016 lawsuit:

33 teachers (Alabama Budget Fact Book 2019)

298 tax credit scholarships under the Alabama Accountability Act (AL.com)

41 state troopers (Alabama State Personnel Department)

38,000 naloxone kits, like Narcan, that reverse opioid overdoses. (U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice)

50 entry-level prison guards (Alabama Department of Corrections)

267 Medicaid enrollees (Alabama Medicaid Agency)