Sen. Doug Jones (D., Ala.) said in an interview with the Associated Press that he would not support a personhood amendment and is in favor of a woman's freedom to choose.
"First right off the top, several people in Alabama have asked if you would support a personhood amendment. So maybe we should tell folks personhood would be legislation to say that life begins, what, at conception. It would be an anti-abortion amendment," AP congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro said.
"You know that’s the same amendment that failed over in Mississippi because it is fraught with peril ... You cannot completely make a constitutional amendment that way without opening up Pandora’s box on any number of occasions. So just like the people of Mississippi did several years ago, that is nothing recent, just like they did several years ago, I would urge rejection of that," Jones responded.
"And to be clear, you are in favor of abortion access and abortion rights?" Mascaro asked.
"I am in favor of a woman’s freedom to choose. I am in favor of the laws that exist today, with a woman’s freedom to choose. And as you get more progressed, it would need to only be under rare circumstances like in the cases of incest and rape, those kinds of things. But that is where I stand on that issue," Jones said.
In November, almost 60 percent of Alabama voters approved an amendment to the state's constitution that would recognize and support "the sanctity of unborn life" and state that the Constitution "does not protect the right to abortion or require the funding of abortion."
The ballot measure was intended to protect a ban on abortion in Alabama should the Supreme Court decide to overturn Roe v. Wade, in which case the issue of abortion legality would go to the states.
In January of this year, Jones voted against banning abortions after 20 weeks. He also has a 100 percent rating from Planned Parenthood.