An Alabama lawmaker is defending comments that on Wednesday quickly shook the hornet’s nest of the abortion ban debate.

“So you kill them now or you kill them later. You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later,” State Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, said in a video posted on Twitter.

On Thursday, Rogers defended the statement, arguing Alabama does not value life despite the House having just passed what some say is one of the strictest abortion laws in America.

“We’ve closed 13 rural hospitals in this state. Including Cooper Green. We have put hundreds of people in jail. Making it hard for you to get food stamps. In other words, if you’re on drug tests, you can’t get food stamps,” Rogers said Thursday.

“And then you’ve got at least two people a night dying in our Alabama prisons. It just doesn’t make sense. So why do you want to bring these people in the world and then deny them the right to process and live in Alabama?”

The original statements quickly prompted an intense backlash.

“This is one of the most horrific statements I’ve ever heard from an elected official, and it follows the previous disgusting comments from Governor Northam in Virginia,” U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne said in a statement.

“The American people must put our foot down and say enough is enough. Every single life is precious and worth fighting for. I’m disappointed Alabama has a Senator in Doug Jones who is unabashedly pro-abortion and refuses to stand up to this type of extremism from members of his own party. Alabama deserves a 100% pro-life voice representing us in the Senate."

This is stomach curling and makes Ralph Northam look like a moderate on abortion.



Every Democrat running for President needs to be asked where they stand on this. The extreme turn we've seen from Dems on abortion recently is truly sickening. https://t.co/KchZfqvQMK — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 1, 2019

“Representative Rogers’ remarks are chilling. ‘Kill them now, or you kill them later’? His comments should be condemned at the state and national level,” Alabama Senate Majority Leader Sen. Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said in a statement.

“Every human life, no matter how weak or small, has inherent dignity because we are all made in the image of God. House Bill 314, which the House passed 74-3, recognizes and protects the dignity of human life, and the Alabama Senate looks forward to debating and voting on this important pro-life measure in the coming days.”

The "Human Life Protection Act,” or HB314, approved in the Alabama House of Representatives and now pending in the Senate, would make performing - by a doctor or someone else - an abortion a Class A Felony, punishable by 20 to 99 years in prison, or attempting to perform an abortion a Class C felony.

The bill makes no exceptions for a pregnancy as a result of rape or incest, but does make exceptions for “serious health risk[s] to the unborn child’s mother.” The bill compares the number of aborted fetuses to the those who died in the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide.

Full coverage of the abortion debate in Alabama

Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, said HB314’s purpose is solely to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe V. Wade.

During the House debate Tuesday, she tabled two possible amendments to the bill aimed at changing the rape and incest language because it would hinder the bill’s chances of being challenged by the Supreme Court. Collins said she hopes after the Supreme Court overturns Roe V. Wade Alabama will be able to make a completely different law that determines abortion laws in the state.

Rogers on Thursday argued the bill intrudes on a woman’s right to make decisions about her own health and will likely lead to a costly lawsuit for Alabama.

Instead, Rogers said, Alabama should focus on expanding Medicaid and keeping rural hospitals open.

“For the state not to do for its poor people, is killing them every day in this state. And then paying $1.8 million to fight a lawsuit they might, probably going to lose. That’s what I’m saying. You’re killing me now or killing me later or killing me later. You’re killing me anyway.”

Edited at 11:35 a.m. to add Sen. Greg Reed’s title.