One Texas lawmaker stepped up the fight against legal abortion.
A step too far, as it turned out.
State Rep. Roy Tinderholt, R-Arlington, reintroduced HB 869 last week. The bill would extend the definition of "living child" to include fertilized eggs.
The bill would make all abortion illegal in the state. But that's not all.
Texas law allows the death penalty for the murder of a child under 10 years of age. If the bill ever became law, it could subject a woman who has an abortion to the death penalty.
Needless to say, when the news broke there was a firestorm. Pro-choice advocates took to social media to loudly proclaim that those who say they support life were now willing to kill women.
A bit dramatic, to be sure. The law would likely never survive a court challenge in the first place. And we seriously doubt any woman who had an abortion would have been strapped to the gurney and executed.
But the outrage was enough. State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Collin County, chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence and himself proudly pro-life, effectively killed the bill by refusing to allow it out of committee.
Thankfully good sense won the day.
This isn't the first time Tinderholt has tried this. It may not be the last. But it's a bad move any way you look at it.
The pro-life movement has made some advances lately. That encourages us. But extremist bills like this can do a lot of damage. Now is the time to keep moving forward at a steady pace, not set the cause back.