A Republican legislator in Texas reintroduced a bill that would punish women who receive an abortion with a homicide conviction, which is subject to capital punishment in the Lone Star state.
During a hearing this week, state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, a Republican from northeastern Texas, defended the language of the legislation. He said he wants the state government to provide “equal protection” for unborn children both “inside and outside the womb.”
Tinderholt’s bill, HB 869, criminalizes all abortions in Texas without any kind of exception. In a departure from the mainstream Republican position, women who receive the procedure would be charged with homicide by the state penal system. Republicans traditionally support anti-abortion legislation that shifts the blame to doctors and abortion providers rather than criminalizing the women who receive the procedure.
“I think it’s important to remember that if a drunk driver kills a pregnant woman, they get charged twice. If you murder a pregnant woman, you get charged twice. So I’m not specifically criminalizing women. What I’m doing is equalizing the law,” Tinderholt said.
After Tinderholt introduced the bill in 2017, he was placed under state protection due to death threats. Tinderholt is known in the state legislature for other controversial positions, even with the Republican Party, including his anti-LGBT advocacy.
“I’m trying to reconcile in my head the arguments that I heard tonight about how essentially one is OK 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.
The bill is now expected go to before the full Republican-controlled House of Representatives for debate. A vote on the measure has not yet been scheduled.
