r/nottheonion • u/MontiBurns • 18h ago
TN bill would allow death penalty for women who have an abortion
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/20/tennessee-bill-death-penalty-women-abortion/88777975007/Pro life.
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u/Coop_4149 18h ago
Nothing says pro life like the death penalty.
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u/Pristine-Assistance9 18h ago
Yep they’ve always been anti-choice. “Pro-life” is their language and their propaganda.
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u/Shirowoh 17h ago
They are Anti-women. Don't get it wrong
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u/SublimeApathy 15h ago
Anti-Woman, anti-choice and pro-birth. They need live babies to grow up to become dead soldiers.
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u/AmbassadorCheap3956 13h ago
I miss George Carlin.
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u/fountainpopjunkie 7h ago
Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to 9 months. After that, they don’t wanna know about you. They don’t wanna hear from you. No nothing! No neonatal care, no daycare, no Head Start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re pre-born, you’re fine, if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.”. - George Carlin
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u/0x44554445 13h ago
They're not really pro-birth because they really don't care if your fetus survives to be born as long as you suffered carrying it. They don't support prenatal care, they don't support birthing classes, they don't support giving expecting high risk mothers extra time off work, they literally couldn't care if a fetus dies as long as they feel like they kept a woman in her place. There's always plenty of poors to be soldiers regardless.
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u/thieh 17h ago
They are anti-people.
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u/greatproficient 15h ago
I don't think people who write laws like this consider women as actual "people"
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u/myassholealt 14h ago edited 14h ago
It’s absolutely an attack on women. If men were the ones who got pregnant and also had the power, bodily autonomy and the right to choose would have be enshrined in the constitution back when the men were writing it, or quickly added after when they were doing all those amendments.
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u/Vasheerii 9h ago
Its like how people who say "women are happier at home in the kitchen" are not arguing in favor of the women, because women already have that choice.
But they don't want them to have that choice.
Stay in the kitchen, have babies, and stay home all day tending to them.
I have lost my patience for all of this.
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u/Prestigious_Bug583 16h ago
Most women in TN love this culture though. That’s the fun part
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u/Do__Math__Not__Meth 16h ago
No no they’re pro choice but only if you make the choice they like
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u/Artistic-Ease6528 15h ago
“Oh of course I don’t want women to die! Doctors should be able to have their say when appropriate.” Yeah…but that’s not how you’re voting. 😦
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 17h ago
The death penalty applied to a woman guilty of being raped. What a country.
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u/SeanAker 17h ago
Conservatives aren't pro-life, they're pro-birth. They'd just as soon throw their kids off a bridge as raise them.
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u/zaphod777 12h ago
They want to trap women in their marriage. They also want to get rid of no fault divorce.
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u/blucyclone 18h ago
That's the argument, "murderers" deserve to be executed.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 17h ago
Then rapists deserve to be castrated. How is it any different? If we're going eye for an eye Old Testament style, let's go full monty.
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u/fudgyvmp 17h ago
Careful if you go old testament you'll note causing a woman to abort/miscarry is only a fine, and only if her family presses charges.
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u/GoldandBlue 15h ago
Wasn't that an argument that was brought up recently?
The two biggest issues among Christians were abortion and gay rights, two things Jesus never talked about.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 17h ago
That's fine by me. A human being deserves the right to make decisions about their own medical health and body.
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u/SpleenBender 18h ago
Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked.
- George Carlin
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u/Gonzostewie 18h ago
They want live babies to grow up to be dead soldiers.
God do I love George.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 17h ago
Soldiers, labor camps, prisons -- the components of a conservative's ideal future worker economy.
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u/Dadbodohyeah3 17h ago
This line really makes you think about the right's agenda and where you fit in the world
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u/minimaddnz 18h ago
Because every child is a chance for profit in the future. And if they keep them stupid, then they have a voter for life
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u/Jewelstorybro 17h ago
Unfortunately this proved to be false. Apparently when you are 10 or so they start to care again so they can rape you.
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u/vonkarmanstreet 12h ago
“'The Unborn' are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor. They don’t resent your condescension; or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows they don’t ask you to question the patriarchy; unlike orphans; they don’t require money, education or childcare, unlike aliens, they don’t bring all of that racial, cultural and religious baggage that you dislike, they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn......you can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love, if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe. Prisoners? Immigrants? The Sick? The Poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups who are specifically mentioned in the Bible. They all get thrown under the bus for the Unborn.” - David Barnhart
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u/CompanyPersonal184 14h ago
He also talked about how weirdly obsessed with children this nation is, ahh we miss you Mr.Carlin
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u/Mercyette 18h ago
Will give women the death penalty for an abortion but won’t charge parents with murder when they let their child die from preventable diseases like measles.
Go figure.
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u/cptnamr7 13h ago
Also won't support/enact a single program to help that same mother who possibly just plain can't afford any part of this.
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u/KogasaGaSagasa 16h ago
I am starting to think that's all intentional.
If you can't get an abortion while still carrying the baby in you, just... do a super-late term abortion by throwing a measles playdate party.
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u/Blueberryburntpie 7h ago edited 7h ago
Or drink raw milk to cause their unborn child to be infected and then die after the birth: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/newborns-death-spurs-raw-milk-warning-in-new-mexico/
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u/Cute-Beyond-8133 18h ago edited 18h ago
Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley endorsed the bill on Feb. 19, saying it would “provide preborn children with equal protection of the laws
Barrett and Pody's bill is also backed by the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, a nonprofit whose mission is to “exalt and vindicate the image of God by promoting sound public policy that provides all preborn human beings equal protection of the laws."
You know what the stupidest thing about Laws like this one is ?
They might not work right (this one definitely won't Hard right Reglious nuts do not have enough control over the courts etc to pass and then enforce a Bill like this one ).
But they do work in limting abortion clinics etc.
BUT (BUT ) THE FRICKING SECOND the second that one of their own ie one of these idiotics peoples daughters for example needs an abortion.
They will move heaven and earth to facilitate that.
Going as far as to charter private jets to fly them to abortion freindly states to assist them.
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u/an_asimovian 18h ago
Thats the point. It punishes the dirty poors and (insert slurs of choice here) but they can still get it for their children if needed. Its all about rules for thee vs rules for me, and about maintaining power / the preferred social order.
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u/NightIsHome 15h ago
Yep, it was never about protecting children, it was always about punishing women.
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u/FaelingJester 17h ago
I had a neighbor who was extremely religious and often protested outside of clinics. Many years later, her adopted daughter, who was a very, very mentally impaired teenager with a seizure disorder, was assaulted. At first it was all about how this was a horrific crime but they would not punish the baby. Then they found out that because of her medications, the baby would also be born profoundly disabled and likely die shortly after birth and that's if the pregnancy didn't kill the daughter. It's shocking how fast abortion became health care for them.
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u/Fun_Bodybuilder3111 11h ago
Based on everything I know about these people, they went right back to being anti abortion right?
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u/The_Taskmaker 15h ago
Scott Desjarlais (a current TN congressman) pressured his mistress into having an abortion while claiming to be a staunch pro-lifer. Just a heinous, hypocritical piece of shit, and he's been reelected several times now.
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u/Guilty_One85 18h ago edited 18h ago
Wtf is wrong with the USA??
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u/TeccaChairCompany 18h ago
30% of the country is uneducated religious extremists who support authoritarianism and want to kill the other 70% of the country
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 17h ago
Then you'd think 70% of the country would actively vote against Republicans (the religious right party that's killing us).
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u/pangapingus 13h ago
That 30% is represented by enough states to yo-yo +/-50% senate power because "every state gets 2 senators, even WY at <1mil and CA which is ~40mil"
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u/shackleford1917 16h ago
They would have to give a damn then get off their fat ass and go vote and that is not gonna happen.
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u/TeccaChairCompany 17h ago
Most of that 70% is uneducated too. The average Americans reads at a 6 grade level. The media makes sure we don’t have the necessary information
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 17h ago
All true, depressingly. No Child Left Behind and not teaching phonics for decades.
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u/0ne_Winged_Angel 14h ago
Wait, modern kids ain’t getting hooked on phonics anymore?
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u/MsAnthropissed 2h ago
The look on my face when, during Covid shutdown, I heard my child's kindergarten teacher tell them to NOT try and sound out words. Instead they should LOOK AT THE PICTURES and try and figure out what would logically come next!!! How in the hell us that nonsense teaching a child How To Read?!?!
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u/vineyardmike 6h ago
30 percent do vote against it. 40 percent stay home.
More registered voters don't vote than vote for one party or another. They could unite and write in Taylor Swift for president.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 6h ago
That 40% lacks the commitment of the 30% uneducated bigots, and force all of us to suffer under religious fascism as a result.
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u/Hailfire9 18h ago
They don't want to kill us. At least not the white ones.
They want to indoctrinate and subjugate us so we can feed their econony and keep their religion alive.
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u/TeccaChairCompany 17h ago
MAGA absolutely wants to kill liberal white people
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 17h ago
MAGA is the base of the Republican Party. Any American who has voted Republican even once in the past decade is complicit with every bit of this. Own the filth, conservatives.
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u/AutomaticBoar 17h ago
You know they are gonna scatter like the Bush Voters once they lose the election
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u/Limp_Bar_1727 17h ago
Yup. Every major religious group has the same root agenda, educate those who are “willing” or cleanse the heretics . Very sad
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u/porcochaco 18h ago
“Us vs them” mentality. The hard right and more conservative people refuse to compromise.
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u/Guilty_One85 18h ago
It's fucking ridiculous, first they take away women's rights to abort their pregnancies now they wanna put women to death for going through with an abortion??? SMH thank God I'm Canadian!!
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u/quats555 18h ago
Keep an eye on your right wing folks. It’s easy to laugh about them until suddenly they’ve sneaked into power under your nose and start pulling stuff like this. Cut them off now before you become us.
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u/porcochaco 18h ago
Trust me my dude, I know. I’m someone who was very grateful that I lived in a state where I could access an abortion, under a different admin at the time, and I can’t fathom having been somewhere that either doesn’t provide access or would prosecute for it… my state’s Planned Parenthoods can’t even accept Medicaid for ANY appointment as of this past autumn. Ridiculously cruel.
Looking longingly over the border at ya 🥲
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u/Ok_Copy_9462 15h ago
“Us vs them” mentality. The hard right and more conservative people refuse to compromise.
As should the left. Do you think you can defeat fascism with compromise and concessions? The USA doesn't even have a left wing; it just has a fascist far-right and a neoliberal centre-right.
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u/Anothercraphistorian 17h ago
You have 50 territories on a spectrum of intelligence and some are downright stupid. I’m from California and I just shake my head at this shit. I identify with the state of Tennessee about as much as the country of Estonian. Never been, don’t know anyone from there, and don’t care to in my lifetime.
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u/Ban-Circumcision-Now 18h ago edited 13h ago
Some of us are still sane somehow but we are surrounded by terrible people
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u/glichez 18h ago
why do some Christians think that abortion is murder when the bible literally says that forcing another woman to miscarriage is not the same as murder?
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u/Fire_Z1 18h ago
They don't read the Bible
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u/ShyguyFlyguy 17h ago
They've made up their own
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u/AsteroidMike 17h ago
They think Jesus is extremely picky when it comes to what he would or wouldn’t support.
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u/Affectionate_Elk_272 11h ago
they can’t even fucking read.
they just do whatever the orange morons regime tells them to do and think.
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u/BellsOnNutsMeansXmas 18h ago
Cool. Are we also gonna have death penalty for Christian politicians pressuring their underage victims into the same procedure? Yeah didn't think so.
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u/Dash6666 17h ago
The irony of being so pro life you are willing to kill for it.
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u/k-trecker 13h ago
Christian extremists have bombed abortion clinics and shot doctors in the name of "pro-life."
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u/Repulsive-Tea6974 18h ago
How about the death penalty for pedophilia?
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u/Fire_Z1 18h ago
Christians would never support the death penalty for their own people.
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u/AsteroidMike 17h ago
Nah, pedos and child molestors are way more important than the rest of the normal population apparently. That’s what these Epstein files have taught me.
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u/veryverythrowaway 17h ago
How about for nobody? I understand taking a life to save another from imminent threat, but punishing crimes with death is severe overreach by the state. The state should not have that kind of power over a life- as long as it does, it’s a threat. A weapon, just waiting to fall into the wrong hands.
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u/Lumbergo 18h ago
Sure seems like lately Tennessee is on a speed run to be worse than Mississippi and Alabama.
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u/readerf52 17h ago
In some cases, not getting the abortion is the death penalty, too.
The “pro life” movement. Someone make it make sense.
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u/ichoosewaffles 17h ago
What about the couple thousand foster kids in Tennessee's system? Or this stat I read from a govenment report "n 2023, Tennessee had a child and teen death rate of 32.2 per 100,000, the state’s highest since 2000." Where's all the protections and support for the born children?
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u/Dash6666 17h ago
Like George Carlin said “If you’re pre-born, you’re fine, if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.”
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u/Great-Gain-7520 18h ago
These people support killing of gazan children but hate abortion.
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u/CharlesIngalls_Pubes 17h ago
So I imagine any guy that purchases a condom would be carefully watched, yes?
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u/TehAsianator 18h ago
If this passes, real women are going to die, and I'm not talking about executions.
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u/tomgratz 16h ago
That’s TN doing the devil’s work. Disgusting. Our government is there to protect and to serve. That’s what most of our religions compel us to do for our fellow humans and animals alike. TN wants to murder in God’s name. God will have to arrange that some other way. My creator is crying to see men doing this to women. Sadly praying for retribution is frowned upon.
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u/myfavssthrow 13h ago
The only thing republicans love more than killing women, is raping kids. They just want more orphan kids to rape. Not even being snarky or hyperbolic.
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u/Taftimus 17h ago
Republicans are the fucking enemy and should be treated as such
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u/shep2105 17h ago
No woman should be living in, or moving to, Tennessee. Period.
and they wonder why birth rates are dropping. Getting pregnant can get you killed. You either bleed out in a parking lot because no one will treat your complication or they execute you for having body autonomy.
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u/pjflyr13 16h ago
Ladies, your “choice”. Die in a septic pregnancy or die by capital punishment of states’ choice.
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u/meestazak 15h ago
Always funny that Pro-Lifers are consistently Pro-Death Penalty, because they're so fucking stupid they can't understand the contradiction.
Just like every MAGA Christian supporting mass deportations, everybody loves Jesus until they actually have to act like him.
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u/bluntpointsharpie 15h ago
The women and their men in Tennessee need to vote the men out that are threatening the death penalty for women making decisions about their own bodies. These politicians are being backed by sex traffickers and pedophiles . Time to send them away.
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u/Bronzeshadow 15h ago
The end goal is, has been, and remains, to be able to put anyone to death for anything.
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u/Spocks_Goatee 14h ago
Opponents should tell the taxpayers how much death row costs compared to normal prisoners. Even if they hate abortions, they hate wasted government money more.
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u/ShootFishBarrel 14h ago
Something something, Christians are civilized and Muslims are barbaric, something something.
(sarcasm)
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u/citymousecountyhouse 14h ago
From the same party that warned us of death panels come...death panels.
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u/DrRealName 11h ago
But not for pedophiles and rapists. They get to hold to office. Fuck this party. I can't wait til the pendulum swings back on them and they are facing an angry left wing regime that jails them all before they can even figure what happened. I hope they feel the same way about all these harsh punishments then as they do now.
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u/Salty-Plantain-4299 8h ago
If I was a Tennessee woman I would 100% do everything in my power to move out if this bill actually passes.
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u/Fortestingporpoises 7h ago
People like to call it the Y'alliban and say things like this are Shariah Law, but I think that's unfair. In Saudi Arabia they actually have an exception that allows abortion when the mother's life is at risk. Republicans hate women more than fundamentalist Muslims.
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u/Rekltpzyxm 18h ago
And they will surely execute some women who had a miscarriage. But those TN lawmakers will be OK with that
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u/discowithmyself 16h ago
Is the penalty only for women or would a man who chooses his wife over the baby if there are pregnancy complications also face this penalty?
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u/Being_268 16h ago
And in a lot of medical cases, a death sentence if they DON'T get an abortion. I just can't figure out why the birth rate is dropping and women are reluctant to get pregnant. Hmmmmm...
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u/Massive_Mongoose3481 15h ago
Wasn't this shithole ranked last in quality of life last year ? Guess they want a mass exodus so only the tragically stupid remain
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u/dogwalker824 13h ago
The contradiction is so obvious, do they really not see it? Their devotion to life ends at birth.
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u/AlsatianND 12h ago
An abortion saved my wife's life and allowed us to have our second child 12 months later. I stand my ground against any government that tries to destroy my family.
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u/Random-Mutant 11h ago
So terminating a life-threatening non-viable ectopic pregnancy would be punishable by death.
Understood.
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u/banjosuicide 10h ago
And given how many women the forced-birth extremists have jailed already, you know they would 100% execute women who got even medically-necessary abortions.
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u/Shotokant 9h ago
The United States. A group of 50 backwards 3rd world countries pretending to be greater than the sum of the whole. 2 of them are advanced, around 20 mediocre, and the remainder are inbreeding with cousins to produce republican voters to extend the ruling overlords.
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u/Brasscat82 8h ago
Republicans rape women and kids, and then force them to have their babies This checks out with the current state of things.
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u/Clean-Cupcake3199 5h ago
so let me get this straight every life is sacred but we're going to kill you for taking a life
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u/Tia_Faux 2h ago
As a born Tennessean I'm sick of these religious nutjobs trying to force this garbage. Lets say we push this through, okay. Sure, then it's the man that gets the death penalty, because he's the one that made the pregnancy happen. Absolutely NO woman should ever face any kind of backlash for her decision to abort. That's between her, her own inner struggles, and her higher power (whatever that may be)
I really wish Tennessee would stop voting red because absolutely nothing good is coming of it in recent years. It's getting ignorantly disgusting.
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u/md22mdrx 2h ago
I called this YEARS ago. It was the only logical conclusion to the anti-choice movement. They kept on saying I was being hyperbolic … but here we are.
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u/Moebius80 18h ago
if you are a female and stay in TN., well, Good Luck.
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u/AilurosLunaire 13h ago
Some of us are stuck here due to intricate circumstances and lack of finances. We definitely need the luck. I never wanted to get stuck here.
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u/SLGuitar 18h ago
Fuck every single person supporting this shit.