Texas Republicans Meet With Group That Backs Death Penalty for Abortions, IVF

Andrea Grimes
13 minutes

Plus: Florida Supreme Court allows six-week abortion ban to take effect in 30 days.

Here’s another edition of Hard to Believe It’s Only Tuesday, a weekly roundup of the top headlines, tweets, toks, takes, and more in abortion news. You can always email me (andrea.grimes@gmail.com, or grimesandrea@proton.me for more sensitive inquiries) or DM me on instagram with action items, takes, and news clips. This post is probably too long for email, so click the headline above or head to the HTBIOT page to get the full read in your browser, because you don’t want to miss this week’s Goodnight and Good Dunk!

Photo by Victoria Pickering/Flickr/Creative Commons

The big takeaway: How many different ways and how many different times can I say this? The anti-abortion movement will not stop until abortion is banned and criminalized, and until anyone who has, supports, or provides abortion care is prosecuted for homicide and, ideally, executed.

This is their plan. They are open about it. They talk about it at public meetings!

Last week, leaked video showed a bevy of Texas Republican elected officials and law enforcement officers from Hood County (just southwest of Fort Worth) attending a meeting of Abolish Abortion Texas. The group supports homicide charges for abortion (and for IVF!), and specifically advocates for executing people who have abortions. Via Newsweek:

The video appears to show Paul Brown, the director of policy for AATX, saying the group wants women who have abortions to be prosecuted for murder. Newsweek has not independently verified the video of the event.

“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life,” he said, per the video. “The same penalty for harming or killing a born person is also imposed by God in his law for killing a preborn person.”

I mean, this video literally leaked the same week that the South Texas woman who was illegally charged with homicide in 2022 after losing a pregnancy filed suit against the prosecutor who targeted her despite the fact that Texas law specifically prohibits such charges.

You’re likely to hear that Abolish Abortion Texas is some kind of “extremist” or “fringe” group, especially from anti-abortion lobbyists embarrassed that Abolish Abortion Texas — with whom they agree on the position that abortion is murder — is giving away the whole entire plan at this stage in the game.

I profiled the leader of another “abolish” group, Abolish Human Abortion (the man is an actual domestic terrorist) a decade ago for Rewire. Anti-abortion groups that use “abolish” in their names (they’re all over the country, and they appropriate abolitionism to advocate for the death penalty for abortion) are simply not afraid of saying the quiet part out loud. What more mainstream anti-abortion groups like Texas Right to Life and Texas Alliance for Life have is a messaging/optics disagreement with groups like Abolish Abortion Texas, not ideological or political disagreements.

And another thing: The Florida Supreme Court ruled that the state’s six-week abortion ban can take effect in 30 days, bringing the limit down from 15 weeks. This is going to be devastating for what remained of abortion access in the South. And while it may drive turnout for an abortion rights ballot amendment this fall (which the Florida SC also just approved), many, many, many people will be forced to remain pregnant against their will in the meantime.

The Top Headlines

The Takes

  • It’s me, I’m in MSNBC making the case for prioritizing the repeal of the Comstock Act: “… a Comstock repeal campaign would serve Democrats up and down the ballot this November, giving the party a uniting — and popular — cause in a time when many voters are deeply dismayed by the Biden administration’s support for the war on Gaza and inaction on protections for immigrants at the border. Focusing on Comstock repeal would put its Republican supporters on the defensive. They would have to articulate why a law passed nearly 50 years before women even had the right to vote should be enforced today, let alone used to force women and pregnant people across the country to stay pregnant against their will.“

The Tweets/Toks/Grams

The Fuck Are We Supposed to Do About It?

  • 👕 SWAG OF THE WEEK! 👕
  • 🏀 Connecticut: Join Norwalk Actions for Reproductive Justice this Friday, April 5th for a raffle and “Barsketball” night at the Blind Rhino.
  • 💸 EVERY-THE-FUCK-WHERE: It’s abortion fund-a-thon season, an annual bevy of bowl-a-thons, bake-a-thons, craft-a-thons, and basically every other kind of a-thon you can think of to celebrate and fund members of the National Network of Abortion Funds. Find your local event here!
  • 💸 Alabama: Donate to keep the West Alabama Women’s Center’s doors open so they can provide gender-affirming care, repro care, pre- and post-natal care, miscarriage management, and much more!
  • 💸 Alabama: The Yellowhammer Fund is looking for more abortion fund-a-thon teams to help ensure they can fully fund their Catalysts for Reproductive Justice Fellowship. You needn’t be based in Alabama to fundraise!
  • 🍰 McAllen, TX: The Frontera Fund’s bake-a-thon for abortion is back, and they “knead” (lolololol) you! The bake sale is Saturday, April 20 at The Gremlin.
  • 🎥 Dallas: The Texas Equal Access Fund is hosting a screening of Preconceived, a new documentary about crisis pregnancy centers, on Saturday, April 20th.
  • 🤠 Dallas: Join Avow Texas for Deep Canvassing Volunteer Days on March 29 and April 20th. Sign up here.
  • 👶🏽 North Texas: The Texas Equal Access Fund‘s infant care resource drive is back, this time on Saturday, May 4th, at Rubber Gloves in Denton.
  • 🥂 Dallas: The Texas Equal Access Fund‘s First Bloom event is set for Thursday, May 16th.
  • 🦺 St. Louis area: Illinois’ Hope Clinic is looking for clinic escorts. Here’s how to learn more.
  • 🐝 Anywhere: The “Pollination Station,” Apiary Practical Support‘s volunteer training series, is now taking applications.
  • 🚗 Kentucky: The Kentucky Health Justice Network is looking for volunteer drivers and case managers. Here’s where to sign up.
  • 📱 North Texas: The Texas Equal Access Fund is looking for bilingual Spanish-speaking volunteers for their text line. Here’s where to sign up.
  • 🤠 Texas: Local teen-friendly businesses in in Bryan, College Station, Lubbock, or San Angelo can become pickup spots for repro kits assembled by Jane’s Due Process. Here’s the application form.
  • ⛰️ Southwestern Virginia and Appalachia: The New River Abortion Access Fund is looking for volunteers.
  • 🗳️ Anywhere, U.S.: Hey Jane x Vote America helps prep voters to support pro-abortion policies and candidates

Goodnight and good dunk — Petition to expand SCOTUS, but make it Grittys. Via ReproMemes:

That’s all for this week. I’m sure I’ve missed something you’d like to see featured in this roundup, for I am but one woman with a computer and an abortion-news-induced drinking problem. Holler at me — andrea.grimes@gmail.com or grimesandrea@proton.me for more sensitive inquiries, or DM me on Instagram, and I’ll try to add follow-ups as I’m able.

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One response to “Texas Republicans Meet With Group That Backs Death Penalty for Abortions, IVF”

  1. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    So here’s the thing: The Bible they’re explicitly basing this on — explicitly contradicts them. Your quote from the video (the “quote” button here in the controls makes everything into one big quote, so it’s useless):

    ————————————————

    The video appears to show Paul Brown, the director of policy for AATX, saying the group wants women who have abortions to be prosecuted for murder. Newsweek has not independently verified the video of the event.

    “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life,” he said, per the video. “The same penalty for harming or killing a born person is also imposed by God in his law for killing a preborn person.”

    ———————————————–

    But here’s what the Bible actually says, including his “life for a life” quote:

    “And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no [further] injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him; and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any [further] injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” –Exodus 21:22-25

    If the fetus miscarries, the attacker is fined. If the women is injured or dies, then the attacker gets “life for life.” Brown’s quote is twisted 180 degrees from what the passage actually says. He’s saying the exact opposite of what the Bible quote is saying.

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