AG: Doctors Can’t Be Charged With Capital Murder For Abortions
By Vince Leibowitz on Jan 25, 2007 in 80th Legislature
In a rare moment of sanity that seems to be rare in Austin at the moment, the Texas Attorney General’s Office issued an opinion concluding that doctors who perform certain abortions are not, in fact, committing capital murder.
State Rep. David Swinford asked for the opinion after the Texas Association of District and County Attorneys claimed that a 2005 law could result in doctors being charged with capital murder if they performed abortions in the third trimester or without parental consent.
Via AP:
The disagreement centered on a law passed in 2003 that made killing an “unborn child” at any stage capital murder. That law also said performing a lawful medical procedure could be a defense against the capital murder charge.
Last year, however, lawmakers defined performing an abortion on an unmarried girl under age 18 without proper consent or performing an abortion in the third trimester that isn’t covered by certain exceptions as a “prohibited practice” in medicine.
While the prosecutors association said that means doctors actually can be charged with capital murder, Swinford said the Legislature intended for them to be punished under the Occupations Code. That code provides for no greater than a third-degree felony charge.
Abbott’s opinion couldn’t actually prevent some crusading prosecutor from filing capital murder charges against a physician anyway, and what it does say still leaves doctors exposed to a high degree of legal jeopardy. From the Reproductive Rights Prof Blog:
Amen, Brother Abbott. And now that he’s given the Lege some plausible cover, they’ll feel under no pressure to revise the clumsy last-minute amendment from Will Hartnett that caused this ugly mess in the first place (and it’s hard to believe how very ugly things got before the “debate” was over).
If Hartnett wanted to do something sweet for Phil King to compensate for the crushing disappointment of seeing HB 1212 killed before his eyes, why couldn’t he just send flowers?