OPINION:
A Texas Republican state lawmaker, Tony Tinderholt, has re-introduced a bill that would criminalize and ban abortion and classify it as a homicide, opening doors for women who terminate their pregnancies to face imprisonment and even sentences of death. And their little abortion doctors, too.
Wow. There’s pro-life. And then there’s this: Crazy pro-life.
In past statements about his Abolition of Abortion in Texas Act, House Bill 896, which he first brought forward in 2017, Tinderholt also said his intent was to “force” women to be “more personally responsible” with their sexual relations, The Hill reported.
Ouch. That statement probably wouldn’t be so eye-raising if A) it didn’t come from a political servant and B) it included the other half the equation: men.
But here’s Tinderholt’s full statement made to the Texas Observer in 2017: “Right now, it’s real easy. Right now, they don’t make it important to be personally responsible because they know that they have a backup of ’oh, I can just go get an abortion.’ Now, we both know that consenting adults don’t always think smartly sometimes. But consenting adults need to also consider the repercussions of the sexual relationship that they’re going to have, which is a child.”
The fact he’s re-introduced the bill has, predictably, sparked massive community interest. Hundreds attended a hearing on it just this week, listening with no doubt rapt attention when Tinderholt made defensive statements like this: “[I]f 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,” Fox4News reported.
That may be true — at least in some states.
But what’s also true is that it takes two to tango.
And not to be graphic or crude, but in a scenario, say, of two people robbing a convenience store, where one shoots the clerk while the other’s grabbing the goods — who’s more culpable for the murder? The one who fired the shot or the one who, yes, participated in the act but didn’t hold the gun?
Most courts, most juries would say the shooter.
Most courts, most juries would say both were guilty of crimes, but the one holding the gun and firing the shot was actually guiltier.
See where this is headed? It just seems a tad unfair to imprison the woman who was impregnated without also imprisoning the man who did the impregnating, yes?
Tinderholt has a point about abortion — it’s morally wrong and reprehensible, it steals the life of a child, it’s way overused these days as a form of contraception, it’s against God’s will for humanity, it’s evil.
But this?
“Texas abortion bill proposes death penalty for women, physicians,” NBC News wrote in a headline.
“A Texas bill would make it possible to put women to death for having abortions,” The Washington Post wrote in another headline.
“Women Could Face Death Penalty for Having an Abortion Under Proposed Texas Law,” The Root wrote in yet one more headline.
Come on now. Surely, there are ways to put an end to abortion that come on the wings of grace, not jail time and possible death penalties.
This can’t be good for the pro-life movement.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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