Abortion law raises question of murder charges

Physicians who violate new restrictions can be prosecuted for capital murder, the Texas District and County Attorneys Assn. says. Organized medicine disagrees with that analysis.

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews correspondent. Oct. 10, 2005.

A dispute has erupted in Texas over whether state law enables public prosecutors to bring capital murder charges against physicians who violate new abortion restrictions.

On one side is the Texas District and County Attorneys Assn., a nonprofit, nonpartisan corporation that trains and educates independently elected prosecutors in Texas.

TDCAA contends that an abortion law the state Legislature approved this year has the effect -- whether intentional or not -- of exposing physicians who perform prohibited abortions to capital murder charges. In Texas, a capital murder conviction can carry the death penalty.

On the other side is the Texas Medical Assn., which says TDCAA has issued a "cockamamy" interpretation of state law. "It is highly unlikely that this DA society's interpretation is accurate," TMA spokesman Darren Whitehurst said.

TDCAA contends that it does not take a position on what the law should say, only what the law does say. "We're not advocates," said Executive Director Rob Kepple. "But it's our duty to tell people the way the law fits."

According to TDCAA's interpretation, the new abortion law fits together with the state's existing fetal protection law, which allows prosecutors to charge with assault or murder individuals who harm or kill a fetus.

The new law, which took effect Sept. 1, adds two abortion-related items to the list of "prohibited practices" in the Medical Practices Act of the state's Occupations Code.

One item prohibits doctors from performing an abortion on a minor without written parental consent or a judicial bypass order.