The bill would criminalize all abortions, with no exceptions for rape or incest, and would make it possible to charge a woman with homicide for having the procedure, according to the Washington Post. The state of Texas allows capital punishment for homicide.
Rep. Tony Tinderholt, a Republican state legislator who introduced the bill, says it would make people “consider the repercussions” of having sex.
“My bill simply accomplishes one goal,” Tinderholt said in a statement to media on Wednesday. “It brings equal treatment for unborn human beings under the law.”
The bill, which was discussed at a hearing on Monday, is unlikely to pass. And it falls far outside the mainstream of the anti-abortion movement, which has generally opposed punishing women for having abortions. “I am absolutely appalled by any proposal that would suggest prosecuting a woman for seeking an abortion or obtaining an abortion,” Catherine Glenn Foster, president of the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life, told Vox.
But the bill may be part of a larger drive by abortion opponents to introduce laws that could lead to a challenge to Roe v. Wade. And reproductive rights activists fear that Tinderholt’s proposal is a preview of what could happen if the landmark abortion decision is overturned.
“Clearly it is a terrifying example of the lengths the anti-choice GOP are willing to go to punish women,” Adrienne Kimmell, the vice president of communications and strategic research at NARAL Pro-Choice America, told Vox.
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