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Group Against Death Penalty Questions Ohio Bill That Would Make Abortion A Capital Crime

Abortion opponents demonstrate outside Governor's office
Statehouse News Bureau
Abortion opponents demonstrate outside Governor's office

Opponents of the death penalty say they are concerned about a newly proposed abortion ban that could charge a woman who gets an abortion and a doctor who provides it with a capital crime. It would make abortion punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole or death. 

Death Penalty Action’s Abe Bonowitz opposes the bill, which creates aggravated abortion murder as a new capital crime. He says putting someone to death for aborting a fetus is extreme.

“It’s a ridiculous and shameful way to stir up the pot," Bonowitz says.

Bonowitz questions the timing since a new Gallup pollshows support for the death penalty is dropping, even among Republicans. Ohio’s death penalty has been put on hold while the state looks for a new lethal injection method.  

Copyright 2019 The Statehouse News Bureau

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment.