What’s pro-life about convicting women of first-degree murder for accessing abortion care? Absolutely nothing. But Idaho State Senator Bob Nonini, a leader in the Republican Party of Idaho, clearly feels that fits squarely in his Party’s orthodoxy and values.
This week, Nonini stated that women should be punished (sound familiar?) for obtaining abortion care. More specifically, he nodded along at the idea that we should receive the death penalty.
Yes, the death penalty.
Nonini has made it clear that making sure women face the threat of prosecution, including the potential death sentence, for accessing their constitutional right to abortion is his goal.
Nonini has always been obsessed with restricting a woman’s reproductive healthcare. Nonini has had no problem swapping checks with anti-choice groups and cozying up to anti-choicers like Brandi Swindell, who ran a crusade against Planned Parenthood, and he’s a strong supporter of Idaho Chooses Life, the group whose mission is to ensure that someday Roe v. Wade is no longer law of the land. And last month, you might have seen him heckling college students who were lobbying for access to birth control.
Nonini even worked with Idaho Chooses Life to create the first abortion reporting system that would require a woman to publicly report how many abortions she has had and reveal her personal medical history. Tell me again how A Handmaid’s Tale isn’t reality.
Nonini has never tried to hide his Trumpian views on women’s rights. It’s no surprise that the party that claims to be pro-life supports a guy who wants to impose the death penalty on women accessing healthcare. Nonini fits right in with the anti-choice GOP’s pro-life hypocrisy, and that’s why he’s our latest Dirty, Rotten, Sexist Scoundrel.