Texas Republicans Hold Hearing on Legislation That Would Make Abortion Punishable by Death

[Content Note: War on agency; reproductive coercion.]

This is straight-up terrorism against women and other people who can become pregnant by the Republican caucus in the Texas state legislature: The Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence held a two-day hearing on a bill introduced by GOP state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, which would "criminalize abortion without exception, and make it possible to convict women who undergo the procedure of homicide, which can carry the death penalty in Texas."

Over the course of the two-day hearing, members of the public "rose to ask lawmakers to protect life, describing a 'genocide' and foreseeing the arrival of 'God's wrath,'" as they petitioned legislators to take up the bill introduced by Tinderholt, "who has been married five times [and] argues that the measure is necessary to make women 'more personally responsible.'"

It was the first time in the state's history, committee members said, that public testimony had been heard on a measure holding women criminally liable for their abortions. The legislation was left pending on Tuesday, as Democrats claimed there was 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.

Not only is this bullshit terroristic and hypocritical in the extreme; it is also reproductive coercion. What could be more coercive than forcing a person to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term under the threat of death?

There are people who accuse me of hyperbole when I call the Republican Party a white supremacist patriarchal death cult, but I stand the fuck by it, and this shit is a perfect, terrible example of why.