'Abolitionists' Push Legislation to Criminalize All Abortions as Homicide - The American Prospect [View all]

[justaprogressive]

Inside a dingy conference room in the North Dakota state house, Texas attorney Bradley Pierce coolly made the case that the 14th Amendment and biblical scripture require the state to charge anyone who obtains an abortion with murder.

When asked by North Dakota Representative Jayme Davis (D–9) about whether the overtly Christian basis of his reasoning disregarded other people’s freedom of religion, Pierce responded with a wry smile and a comment to match. “Well, you know, I think the Aztecs believed it was okay to rip the hearts out of children and offer them as a burnt sacrifice to their gods, and I think that should be illegal.”

Pierce’s testimony in support of HB 1373, a bill that would criminalize all abortions in North Dakota, was one of more than a dozen heard by the state’s House Human Services Committee on February 5. Other supporters taking the podium that morning inside the crowded Pioneer Room included the son of Democratic career diplomat Susan Rice, the co-executive director of a Wisconsin-based network of crisis pregnancy centers, and a “post-abortive” activist from North Dakota.

HB 1373 is not a “typical” anti-abortion bill in post-Roe America. Introduced in January, it would expand the definition of “human being” in the state’s Century Code to include zygotes at “the beginning of biological development at the moment of fertilization” for the explicit purpose of banning all abortions and subjecting anyone who performs or obtains one to criminal punishment. Under this law, anyone who harms a zygote or embryo in North Dakota could be prosecuted for murder or assault, or sued for wrongful death.

https://prospect.org/justice/2025-05-05-abolitionists-push-legislation-criminalize-all-abortion/