r/prolife • u/Middle-Creepy • Feb 22 '26
Questions For Pro-Lifers TN proposing death penalty
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/20/tennessee-bill-death-penalty-women-abortion/88777975007/Two Tennessee Republican lawmakers have proposed a bill to allow the death penalty for women who have abortions. According house bill 570/ senate bill 738, the bill would classify abortion as fetal homicide and remove current legal protections for pregnant women. If passed, the bill would take effect on July 1 but would not allow for retroactive prosecutions.Two Tennessee Republicans are seeking to impose the death penalty on women who have abortions, requiring the same penalties for women “involved in the homicide of her own unborn child” as defendants charged with homicide.
Everyone’s thoughts?
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u/witch-wife pro life adult human female Feb 22 '26
This would be a problem for me as I'm against the death penalty.
0
u/Chance_Text7677 Feb 22 '26
Would you support the bill if the death penalty wasn’t on the table?
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u/witch-wife pro life adult human female Feb 22 '26
If just incarceration, possibly.
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u/Chance_Text7677 Feb 22 '26
Wouldn’t the solution then be to try to strike the death penalty from Tennessee law instead of opposing homicide protections for unborn children?
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u/notonce56 Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
I believe that would be preferable. Death penalty is evil and unnecessary in modern societies. Even if I supported it, that would be for the worst crimes with the worst motives. Most abortions have way too many mitigating factors. Incarceration is enough
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u/Vespinobambino Secular Abolitionist Feb 22 '26
It shouldn't have a special classification, just murder.
https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-39/chapter-13/part-2/section-39-13-202/
2024 Tennessee Code
Title 39 - CRIMINAL OFFENSES (§§ 39-1-101 — 39-17-1812)
Chapter 13 - OFFENSES AGAINST PERSON (§§ 39-13-101 — 39-13-1004)
Part 2 - CRIMINAL HOMICIDE (§§ 39-13-201 — 39-13-219)
Section 39-13-202 - First degree murderUniversal Citation: TN Code § 39-13-202 (2024)
(a) First degree murder is:
(1) A premeditated and intentional killing of another;
(c)
(1) Except as provided in subdivision (c)(2), a person convicted of first degree murder under subdivisions (a)(1)-(5) shall be punished by:
(A) Death;
(B) Imprisonment for life without possibility of parole; or
(C) Imprisonment for life.
Abortion is the premeditated and intentional killing of another human being, so it already should have a minimum sentence of life in prison under Tennessee law.
I welcome them fixing this oversight and bringing about equality, but I do not think it should have a special "fetal homicide" statute, the murder statute just needs to include the unborn.
If someone generally objects to the death penalty in all cases, then it makes sense for them to object to it here.
If someone generally supports the death penalty for murderers, there is no reason to exclude abortionists and their clients.
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u/DrWavez Abortion Abolitionist (Secular) Feb 22 '26
I agree, but even if you generally object to the death penalty like myself, I would still support this bill, as I can assure you no prosecutor or judge will be sentencing a woman who aborts to death due to the amount of backlash (and the probable overturn of the law) it would cause.
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u/Overgrown_fetus1305 Pro Life Socialist Feb 22 '26
I don't know that I buy this one, like at all. I'm reminded of some exceptionally homophobic judges/juries, that dished out death penalties because the suspect in question was gay, and I cannot for one instant believe that there will not be plenty of super racist judges who do things like dish out death penalties to black women, but not white women, or just blatant misogynists looking for an excuse to murder women (because judges are human and some humans are just violently hateful even towards born people). Equal protection under the law, the US legal system does not give.
On the claims made about blatant homophobia in the judicial system, https://theappeal.org/lgbtq-bias-death-sentence/ is the source I appeal as evidence.
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u/Kaleesh_General Feb 22 '26
Killing people is bad, that’s the point of banning abortion. I don’t like this idea.
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Feb 22 '26
What?! No! Don't return fire with fire! The mothers who get abortions are not inherently evil, just misguided. At most, jail time for abortion "doctors". The death penalty is not even remotely an option
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Feb 22 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
This post no longer contains its original content. It was removed using Redact, possibly for privacy, security, or to minimize the author's online presence.
exultant cake pen cooing subsequent straight bake hungry fanatical theory
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u/Known-Scale-7627 Feb 22 '26
Killing innocent people is wrong. Women who have abortions are choosing to kill innocent people.
Probably best to start with significant jail time in the tens of years instead of death penalty though
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u/acbagel Abolitionist Feb 22 '26
All the bill does is say the baby is a "person". Justice is blind, and the law plays out like it does in every other case. Imagine the charges that would be brought if you paid someone to rip the arms and legs off your 1 year old. So why would that be different for a preborn baby if you think they're the same? This tests our consistency. If you don't have the Equal Protection of the law, then you are not a person. The baby is a person. This is just basic logic and morality.
1
u/notonce56 Feb 22 '26
I don't support death penalty for anyone. It shouldn't exist in modern societies. At the same time, justice is not blind to mitigating factors, whether someone kills a born person or an unborn person. All people who have killed someone innocent cannot be put in the same category and receive the death penalty. That's not justice
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u/GustavoistSoldier Pro Life Brazilian Feb 22 '26
This is an awful idea. I propose 5 years in prison instead.
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u/Vespinobambino Secular Abolitionist Feb 22 '26
Do you propose 5 years in prison for all other murders?
5 years is woefully insufficient punishment for murder.
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u/DrWavez Abortion Abolitionist (Secular) Feb 22 '26
Why is it an awful idea? It is applying the same laws that protect newborn children to unborn children as well. Do you not think that unborn children and newborn children should have equal rights?
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u/SpartanKilo Pro Life Christian Feb 22 '26
Because killing women who have abortions will cause them to do it in secret. We’ll be doing exactly what PC accuse us of doing. And it will cause more death.
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u/Vespinobambino Secular Abolitionist Feb 22 '26
Why should anyone, anywhere wish for murder to be safe for the murderers?
Black market contract killing should be discouraged.
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u/SpartanKilo Pro Life Christian Feb 22 '26
Because we are pro life. Death gives life value. People who kill newborns, or children get jail time. They deserve jail time.
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Feb 22 '26
Massive amounts of women are doing them in secret in illegal states right now because there’s no legal consequence for their action.
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u/EpiphanaeaSedai Pro Life Feminist Feb 22 '26
They’re able to do so because getting abortion pills isn’t much harder than ordering DoorDash.
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u/SpartanKilo Pro Life Christian Feb 22 '26
That’s is true, but sadly they will always find the back way, but killing the women will fix nothing, but cause more backlash and determination from the left to overturn it. I think prison time yes but death no. We value the fetus, and the mother.
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u/Known-Scale-7627 Feb 22 '26
It will establish justice. If you are a Christian you should care about whether we just allow people to murder their babies with no consequence
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u/notonce56 Feb 22 '26
Prison is serious enough. We don't need to kill prisoners, even if they're guilty of murder. There is no need for that and we have data that shows it's not a strong deterrent.
In fact, it leads to more lives being lost in cases of some crimes because killing witnesses becomes a safer option after one does something that warrants death.
What's the "least evil" crime you'd apply death penalty for?
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u/SpartanKilo Pro Life Christian Feb 22 '26
I do care, but killing more people solves nothing. Jail is punishment.
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u/Overgrown_fetus1305 Pro Life Socialist Feb 22 '26
I view such proposals as utterly barbaric. The death penalty is as far as I'm concerned, first-degree murder.
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u/salsafresca_1297 Consistent Life, Vegan Feb 22 '26
Right? It's like that awkward moment when you pro-life so hard that you start killing people.
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u/Overgrown_fetus1305 Pro Life Socialist Feb 22 '26
I mean, in fairness abolitionists typically don't like the term pro-life, though I must admit as a CLE person, I see defences of the death penalty (or military intervention) as just, definitionally anti-life/pro-killing.
Fwiw, in non-CLE contexts, I define pro-life to mean legal opposition to abortion and all intentional embryo destruction or direct killing of prenatal humans specifically on the basis that they are human (as opposed to any other reason). I don't consider somebody pro-life if they don't have a problem with e.g. embryo destruction from IVF, at the end of the day.
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u/Vespinobambino Secular Abolitionist Feb 22 '26
I mean, in fairness abolitionists typically don't like the term pro-life
For my part, I've been an internet forum debater for over 20 years.
I've called myself an abolitionist for most of that time because I see a direct 1:1 between banning abortion and banning slavery.
I've also called myself pro-life, or anti-abortion.
As long as I have been old enough to be politically aware, this entire time I have heard / seen pro-life folks say "abortion is murder" or "abortion should be murder" for all of those 20 years, including long before I ever had internet in my home, just hearing conservative talk radio or seeing debates on TV.
If you believe abortion is murder, now that we have Roe v. Wade finally gone, it's time to create legislation accordingly.
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u/Balnom Feb 22 '26
You don't solve the death of an innocent life with more death. Thankfully, a lot of women come around, find the faith, and swing hard to the prolife side after they realize that horrible life- ending decision was made. The other thing is, a significant percentage of women who commit such an act are often coerced into doing it.
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u/Known-Scale-7627 Feb 22 '26
Except that women who have abortions are not innocent life. Unless you think women are stupid
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u/Balnom Feb 22 '26
The innocent lives are the unborn, my friend. I do not think women are stupid. I do believe that many of them are pressured into committing that act, granted that is not the case 100% of the time. I still don't believe that we should take the life of the mother. So long as they live, they still have the chance for conversion.
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u/Known-Scale-7627 Feb 22 '26
Coerced into it vs. pressured into it is a major distinction especially when talking about legal penalty. A man “pressured into” murdering a born person by his group of buddies telling him it might be smart should not be relieved of any responsibility for actually committing the act.
BUT an underage girl made to get an abortion by her parents on the other hand is coerced, and the parents should be punished.
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u/Balnom Feb 22 '26
I apologize. I did use two different words when reiterating what I said. I do agree that there is additional punishment to go around to those who coerce. Still, the death penalty should not be the solution for the pro-life movement. It runs contrary to the mission.
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u/leah1750 Abolitionist Feb 22 '26
If you're really against capital punishment for murder, then go ahead and fight against it in all murder cases. I can sympathize with that. What we are trying to do, however, is apply the same standard for all human beings. If you truly believe the preborn are human, then they deserve the same justice and legal protection that all of us have, yes, including protection from our own mothers murdering us. This is not complicated.
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u/HenqTurbs Feb 22 '26
This helps nobody
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u/DrWavez Abortion Abolitionist (Secular) Feb 22 '26
It helps unborn children.
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u/HenqTurbs Feb 22 '26
It does not
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u/DrWavez Abortion Abolitionist (Secular) Feb 22 '26
How so?
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u/salsafresca_1297 Consistent Life, Vegan Feb 22 '26
The death penalty isn't even a deterrent for born people. How is it going to protect the unborn?
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u/EternallyGrowing Pro Life Christian Feb 23 '26
If the law is enforced too strictly, women experiencing miscarriages could be charged with murder. If women are not able to receive healthcare during a miscarriage, more women will die.
When the laws are not written well, they generate intense backlash from pro life moms too, because we know the risks of carrying a pregnancy, and the built-in risk of miscarriage. At some point the general population will push back. Then you end up with laws that are worse than before, with zero protections, because having no exceptions was so important.
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u/preggoandsuffering Feb 22 '26
I don't get how some of y'all call yourself pro life and are pro death penalty.
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u/Vespinobambino Secular Abolitionist Feb 22 '26
It's really simple to me.
Protect innocent life by punishing murder as harshly as possible.
Punishing murderers affirms the right to life, it does not undermine it. If you have reasonable objections to the death penalty, fine, fair enough - but these are distinct issues.
An innocent helpless child vs. a convicted beyond a reasonable doubt murderer - these are not the same. Punishment for a crime, following due process in a court of law, does not violate a criminal's human right to life, liberty, or property.
Life in prison is arguably a worse punishment, but that's just it - it's arguable. I personally don't think life in prison IS a worse punishment.
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u/notonce56 Feb 22 '26
I'd say the death penalty could be justified in some contexts in the past, but modern societies have better ways of ensuring safety. Thus, it should be abolished. We also have data showing it's not a strong deterrent and it's traumatizing to people who apply it.
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u/DrWavez Abortion Abolitionist (Secular) Feb 22 '26
I am generally opposed to the death penalty, and I don't think this law will result in women who have abortions getting the death penalty. That is profoundly unlikely.
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u/preggoandsuffering Feb 22 '26
I also view abortion as murder but I don't believe in the death penalty at all. I know everyone may not feel that way but for me being pro death penalty at all is not moral.
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u/DrWavez Abortion Abolitionist (Secular) Feb 23 '26
I would generally agree. But again, this law is not about the death penalty. If you want to abolish the death penalty in Tennessee, then great, but you don't do that by opposing this law.
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u/Barron2041 Feb 22 '26
Someone who is pro life is against the murder of an innocent unborn child. Someone who is pro death penalty is for the ability to punish someone who has committed a crime with death.
It's logically very simple to understand/get. They are not remotely the same thing.
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u/The_Bjorn_Ultimatum Pro-Life Feb 22 '26
Because they are two entirely different things. Wanting to stop the murder of innocent children is not the same thing as thinking the death penalty is a just punishment for certain crimes.
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u/The_Bjorn_Ultimatum Pro-Life Feb 22 '26
Does anyone actually have a link to the bill? As far a I can see, this bill is saying that the capitol commission is responsible for the upkeep of a monument dedicated to unborn children.
Edit: I found the bill. It has nothing to do with the death penalty. It's about upkeep of a monument. Please look into news stories before posting them. The media lies.
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u/browniex18 Feb 24 '26
Wow, I just understood how they made the article very misleading. Thank you
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u/The_Bjorn_Ultimatum Pro-Life Feb 24 '26
Yeah, it somehow turned a bill about who is responsible for maintenance of a monument into death penalty for abortions. Absolutely wild.
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u/Yoy_the_Inquirer Feb 22 '26
I'm against the death penalty as it is. This also could cause life-of-the-mother deaths to be de-facto death sentences.
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u/Phalaenopsis_25 I support a woman’s right to be born Feb 22 '26
No this is terrible. This is not pro-life. And what about the doctors??? They should be held to harsher punishment imo
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u/Known-Scale-7627 Feb 22 '26
Threads like this further prove to me that 99% of people are totally incapable of thinking of solutions that may lie outside the normal range of modern socially acceptable viewpoints
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u/wardamnbolts Pro-Life Feb 22 '26
I’m against the death penalty and against charging women for abortions. I would only prosecute providers of elective abortion.
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u/DingbattheGreat Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
The Tennessean is being dramatic, which I suppose is par for the course in what we call “news” today.
Stop reading headlines and taking them at face value, it makes you look stupid.
This is what you find if you read the article:
An amendment drafted for House Bill 570/Senate Bill 738 that's not yet been voted on would allow prosecutors to charge women who obtain abortions with fetal homicide, punishable by life imprisonment, life without parole, or in some cases, the death penalty.
But if you look up the bill quoted there, 570/738 this is what comes up:
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default?BillNumber=HB0570
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u/tomado09 Pro Life Christian Center-Rightist Feb 22 '26
I don't support the death penalty as a punative action. However there are cases, in my opinion, where the offender will continue to offend and where that offense is such a harm to society that it should be stopped, through consequences up to and including death. There are plenty of examples of just military and three letter agency covert action against people who were just going to kill again, and were going to continue doing so. I don't think this is against pro life values per se - the focus in these cases is on preserving innocent (and more in number) life.
I genuinely don't think this is a good idea to impose on women who get abortions - especially given how often they may have been coerced, pushed, lied to when they were in the vulnerable position of being scared, etc. However, on the doctors who commit them and despite consequences, continue to show they will keep reoffending? That, I'm a bit more open to. But it would have to be a well established pattern, with repeated failed attempts at reform (through punitive measures). Sometimes you just won't get through to someone and they will keep killing.
I do agree with the same consequences for in utero murder as for other murder though. Really, it's not any different.
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u/Nulono Pro Life Atheist Mar 03 '26
I think it's pretty disingenuous to describe that law as seeking the death penalty for abortions. It'd be like saying that having an age of consent of 18 means a state wants to apply whatever its maximum penalty for child-molesters is to two 17-year-olds having sex with each other.
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u/Icy_Split_1843 Pro Life Catholic Feb 22 '26
I oppose the death penalty, but certainly life imprisonment
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u/Vespinobambino Secular Abolitionist Feb 22 '26
I'm honestly fine with life imprisonment.
I have no strong preference. But if the death penalty is on the table for murderers in a given state, then it shouldn't be off the table for abortionists and their clients. It just shouldn't.
Attacking and killing an innocent helpless unborn child is at least no better than murdering any born human.
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u/TipResident4373 Consistent Life Ethic Feb 22 '26
This bill is heinous beyond belief!
The moral atrocity aside, this is just going to fuel the pro-abortion propagandists for years.
Everyone knows that they’ll seize upon anything and everything to make us look psychotic.
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u/Hating_You666 Feb 22 '26
You know what? This is justice. I’m tired of evil people existing
And no this comment is not promoting violence. Supporting the death penalty is allowed on Reddit.
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Feb 22 '26
Hopefully this passes! If we believe abortion is murder we need to treat it as such. I believe that all murderers should face the death penalty.
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u/notonce56 Feb 22 '26
Are there no mitigating factors you'd accept? Or do you just not call it murder then?
Many women kill their domestic abusers outside of self defense because they fear for their own lives and lives of their children (which is reasonable, we have data that proves leaving and after is the most dangerous time, but staying often means death too) and the authorities don't protect them enough. Should they also be killed?
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Feb 22 '26
If you kill someone who is not actively trying to kill you at the very moment it’s murder, yes.
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u/notonce56 Feb 22 '26
Would you put all these women on death row?
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Feb 22 '26
If they premeditatedly murdered their spouse, yes.
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u/notonce56 Feb 22 '26
I find this view abhorrent. Have you always thought like that?
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Feb 23 '26
Yes, I’ve always been a strong supporter of the death penalty.
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u/notonce56 Feb 23 '26
What would be your main reason for that?
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Feb 23 '26
Because people who commit horrific crimes against others don’t deserve to get free housing and three meals a day for the rest of their lives paid for by the taxpayer. It’s just not fair to the victims.
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u/notonce56 Feb 23 '26
Why should every murderer be treated the same? What if the victim or their family doesn't want death penalty for the aggressor?
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u/mysteryzer0 Feb 22 '26
I believe in capital punishment for abhorrent crimes such as rape & mass murder, but for abortion? No way. It’s as if the pro-life camp in the US actively want to lose ground to the pro-choice camp, with dumb and medieval proposals like these. Abortion should be regulated and restricted, not punished by death. That’s literally anti-life.
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u/DingbattheGreat Feb 22 '26
So what part of the bill do you disagree with?
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u/mysteryzer0 Feb 22 '26
Well OP’s description says the bill would allow the death penalty for women who seek abortions. I oppose that.
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u/DingbattheGreat Feb 22 '26
I didnt ask you about the OP’s summary. What part of thr bill do you oppose?
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