A Texas lawmaker's proposal to criminalize abortion without exception - and make it possible to convict women who undergo one of ...
A Texas lawmaker's proposal to criminalize abortion without exception - and make it possible to convict women who undergo one of homicide - earned a hearing this week as part of a push in Republican-controlled states to limit abortion rights and challenge Roe v. Wade.
A homicide conviction can carry the death penalty in Texas, where the bill faces steep odds of becoming law.
The sponsor, state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, of Arlington, is an Air Force veteran who has been married five times. He first introduced the measure in 2017 and said it's needed to make women "more personally responsible." He also sai dhis intention is to guarantee "equal protection" for life inside and "outside the womb."
During a hearing on the bill that began Monday and stretched into Tuesday, hundreds of people testified, including Sonya Gonnella, who said: "God’s word says, ‘He who sheds man’s blood, by man — the civil government — his blood will be shed." She was quoting the Book of Genesis.
Committee members said it was the first time in the state's history that public testimony was heard on a measure that holds women criminally responsible for their abortions. The legislation was left pending after the hearing as Democrats claimed a contradiction in the agenda advanced by its supporters, who call themselves "pro-life."
“I’m trying to reconcile in my head the arguments that I heard tonight about how essentially one is okay with subjecting a woman to the death penalty for the exact — to do to her the exact same thing that one is alleging she is doing to a child,” said state Rep. Victoria Neave, a Democrat who represents part of Dallas County.
A number of hurdles stand in the way of the legislation, including the reticence of the committee’s chairman, Republican Jeff Leach, to bring it to the full House. Even some antiabortion groups, such as Texans for Life, oppose the severe changes to the state’s criminal laws.