Bud Kennedy: Texas Republicans debate killing women who get abortions

Should Texas punish abortions by putting teenage girls and women to death? Or not? That’s the current debate in the Republican Party of Texas, where outlawing abortion is no longer a question of “if” or “when” but a question of whether to kill women for getting one. North Richland Hills Republican David Lowe swears his campaign in the May 24 runoff election has nothing to do with killing women. “I’m not even a fan of the death penalty,” he told a Republican women’s club luncheon last week in downtown Fort Worth. But then he went on to praise a House bill last session that would have made ending a pregnancy a potential capital crime.

In other words, Texas could kill the woman, along with anyone who encouraged her or helped. Lowe’s final comment was chilling. “Do we all agree that abortion is murder?” he asked the crowd. “Absolutely. There should be consequences for it.” Of all the opponents, Lowe — an Afghanistan war veteran and longtiime Dallas County party volunteer — chose to run against District 91 state Rep. Stephanie Klick, a five-term House member from the Haltom City-North Richland Hills-Watauga district. Klick, a 35-year nurse, has been a low-key House leader in Texas’ one-step-at-a-time effort to end abortion. So far, Texas has reduced abortions by about 10%. “Abolishing abortion is important, but we can do that without giving women the death penalty,” Klick told the luncheon. She talked about how pregnancy clinics counsel many teenage girls. At 18, they’d be eligible for the death penalty. “Do we want to give those young girls the death penalty?” Klick asked. “ ... I don’t think it’s necessary to sentence women to death that had an abortion.” If you’re wondering how killing women became a pivotal Republican issue, that just shows how extreme this Texas primary and runoff have become.