The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 20 that would penalize state and local elected attorneys for not enforcing Texas’ abortion laws and other classes of law. Not just Texas, but other Republican-led states around the nation are drafting bills seeking to reign in district and county attorneys who are not prosecuting crimes under state law, notably abortion.
Ever since the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, there has been a clash between Republican-led states making abortion illegal, and the elected attorneys in those states to prosecute and enforce those laws.
In a joint statement signed by 92 elected attorneys around the nation, they stated that abortion should not be an issue that they prosecute, and they will not dedicate limited resources to prosecuting people for seeking an abortion. “Not all of us agree on a personal or moral level on the issue of abortion. But we stand together in our firm belief that prosecutors have a responsibility to refrain from using limited criminal legal system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions. As such, we decline to use our offices’ resources to criminalize reproductive health decisions and commit to exercise our well-settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions.”
To view the full story visit https://www.brownwoodnews.com/2023/04/19/texas-senate-passes-bill-penalizing-elected-attorneys/