Abortion Criminalization Divides Memphis Prosecutor Candidates
Mulroy said he won’t prosecute doctors who perform abortions; Weirich refused to state a position.
Yesterday, POLITICO reported that a leaked draft of a United States Supreme Court opinion shows that the Justices are poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, which prohibits the criminalization of abortion. If the decision becomes final, which is likely to happen in the next two months, it will be illegal for a doctor to perform an abortion under state laws in at least 26 states, including Tennessee.
A recent poll conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that three-fourths of voters oppose laws that would “make it a crime for women to get an abortion” while nearly two-thirds of voters oppose laws that could “make it a crime for doctors to perform abortions”.
This overwhelming opposition to criminalizing abortion explains why, across the country, elected prosecutors are scrambling to assure sexual assault victims that no woman or medical provider will be prosecuted and put in prison for obtaining or performing an abortion.
A group of 68 elected prosecutors across the country issued a statement explaining that because the “enforcement of laws that criminalize healthcare decisions” would “impose untenable choices on victims and healthcare providers, and erode trust in the integrity of our justice system,” “it is imperative that we use our discretion to decline to prosecute personal healthcare choices criminalized under such laws.”
Tennessee is one of the states that criminalizes abortion. That’s why, in Nashville, Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk, took to Twitter last night to make clear that he “will not prosecute any woman who chooses to have a medical procedure to terminate a pregnancy or any medical doctor who performs this procedure at the request of their patient.”
Here in Memphis, Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich is the person who will decide whether or not to seek prison time for a doctor who performs an abortion. Memphis Watch scanned the elected prosecutors’ letter, but Weirich’s name was nowhere to be found. Nor did Weirich issue a press release or make a statement on social media about how she’d handle abortion prosecutions.
Reached by email, however, Weirich indicated that she would not be adding her name to the list nor tweeting out assurances to sexual assault victims or their doctors.
“The Shelby County District Attorney’s office does not deal in hypothetical situations,” Weirich told Memphis Watch. “We deal in facts and truth. Any statement on unknown variables is irresponsible and political grandstanding.” Steve Mulroy, a civil rights lawyer and law professor running against Weirich for the District Attorney General seat, disagreed. “A District Attorney should not be prosecuting women or their doctors for their reproductive choices,” Mulroy told Memphis Watch.
Hedy Weinberg, executive director of ACLU of Tennessee also disagreed with Weirich, telling Memphis Watch that “every district attorney in Tennessee should issue a policy stating that they will decline to prosecute abortion cases.” The criminalization of abortion in Tennessee would be “an outrageous attack on our ability to make decisions about our own bodies and whether and when to have children.”
Unfortunately, and despite Ms. Weirich’s statement to the contrary, factual scenarios that could easily lead to imprisonment for doctors are routinely handled by her office. Thus, to get a clear sense of where Weirich stands and to provide an opportunity to take a stand against even the most horrific circumstances of a woman choosing to have an abortion, Memphis Watch asked Weirich a series of granular follow-up questions:
Last month, you issued a press release touting the conviction of a man who raped and impregnated an 11-year-old girl in Shelby County. Would you seek a prison sentence against a doctor who performed an abortion for an 11-year-old rape victim? The same press release also stated that you are prosecuting the same man for raping his girlfriend’s 13 year-old daughter. Would you seek a prison sentence against a doctor who performed an abortion in a case of incest, such as the one involving this 13-year-old rape victim?
Last year, you issued a press release touting the conviction of a man who broke into a home in northeast Memphis–who was armed with a gun, shot two men, pistol whipped a third man, and then sexually assaulted three women. Would you seek a prison sentence for a doctor who performs an abortion in Shelby County in a case involving a stranger rape–for example, where a criminal breaks into a home and violently rapes and impregnates a woman?
Weirich refused to answer these questions.