Idaho GOP candidate suggests women who have abortions should get death penalty

by Jacqueline Thomsen - 04/03/18 5:01 PM ET

A Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Idaho said that women who have abortions should face criminal punishment, potentially including the death penalty, if the state decides to criminalize the procedure, according to The Associated Press.

State Sen. Bob Nonini said at a candidate forum in Moscow, Idaho, on Monday that he believed the women should face penalties if abortions are criminalized in the state, and nodded when asked if he backed the death penalty as a possible penalty.

The two other Republican candidates for the office — GOP businesswoman Janice McGeachin and former Idaho Republican Party Chairman Steve Yates — also said at the forum that they believed abortion was murder.

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However, they did not say that women should be charged with first-degree murder for undergoing the procedures. Nonini didn’t respond to the AP’s request for comment.

Idaho previously attempted to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but a federal court struck down the law as unconstitutional in 2015.

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