A Texas lawmaker has filed a bill that would abolish and criminalize abortions, leaving women and physicians who perform the procedure to face criminal charges that could carry the death penalty.
The legislation, filed Tuesday by state Rep. Bryan Slaton, does not include exceptions for rape or incest. It does exempt ectopic pregnancies that seriously threaten the life of the woman “when a reasonable alternative to save the lives of both the mother and the unborn child is unavailable.”
Louisiana Republicans voted Thursday night to gut a highly controversial bill that would have classified abortion as homicide and allowed prosecutors to criminally charge women who undergo the procedure.
The measure attracted national attention when it passed out of committee last Wednesday with a 7-to-2 vote, less than 48 hours after the leak of a draft opinion that showed the Supreme Court is potentially poised to overturn Roe v. Wade.
North Carolina House Bill (HB) 158, sponsored by a Republican state representative, Larry Pittman, proposed that abortion be considered first-degree murder and would have allowed civilians to use deadly force to prevent someone from ending a pregnancy.
While presenting his bill that would outlaw chemically induced abortions and abortion pills, Missouri State Rep. Brian Seitz (R-Branson) appeared to express openness for a future bill calling for the death penalty for abortion providers.
Seitz made the comments after Rep. Wes Rogers (D-Kansas City) highlighted the severity of punishment in the bill, which goes up to a Class A felony (minimum of 10 years imprisonment and a maximum of 30 years to life in prison).
“It’s a very serious issue, what we’re talking about — what I could consider to be the murder of an infant in the womb and the possible harm and even the [cause] of death if they’re using these drugs in an illegal manner. It could actually kill the woman,” Seitz said. “And I think that penalty is probably not even strict enough.”
“So you’d even go as far as offering the death penalty as a solution?” Rogers asked.
“We’ll have to look at that in other legislation,” Seitz responded.