Who Is Keith Kidwell? The NC Republican Who Introduced a Bill Critics Warn Could Make It Legal to K*ll Women for Having Abortions

A sitting North Carolina lawmaker has introduced a bill that would classify abortion as first-degree murder and explicitly permit the use of deadly force to stop one.

House Bill 1232, filed on 13 May 2026 by Republican state Representative Keith Kidwell, would amend North Carolina's constitution to declare that life begins at the moment of fertilisation and grant that life the full legal protections of personhood from conception to natural death.

The bill text states that anyone who 'willfully seeks to destroy the life of another person, by any means, at any stage of life' would face first-degree murder charges, and that 'any person has the right to defend... the life of another person, even by the use of deadly force if necessary.'

Critics, legal scholars and medical professionals have been unambiguous in their reading. This language could be used to justify killing a woman, her doctor, or clinic staff for terminating a pregnancy.

A Decade of Hard-Right Legislation

Kidwell, 64, is a Republican businessman from Beaufort County, North Carolina, born on 21 June 1961 in Passaic, New Jersey. He holds a BA from William Paterson College, works as a tax accountant and health and life insurance agent and was first elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 2018. He now represents District 79, which spans Beaufort, Dare, Hyde and Pamlico counties along the state's eastern coastline.

He chairs the House Freedom Caucus, the far-right wing of the state Republican caucus, and has previously served as senior chairman of the House Finance Committee. In late 2021, Kidwell's name appeared on a leaked internal membership roster of the Oath Keepers, a far-right anti-government militia. His office did not comment on whether he was or remains a member. Records indicated his name had appeared on that roster since at least 2012.

His legislative record is long and consistent. In the 2023 session, Kidwell introduced a near-total abortion ban from conception, with no exceptions for rape or incest, that would have imposed felony charges and a civil penalty of at least £79,000 ($100,000) on anyone involved in performing the procedure.

House Speaker Destin Hall shut it down before it reached a committee hearing, telling reporters: 'I don't think there's any real desire in our caucus to hear that particular bill, and so it's not going to be heard.' A near-identical bill in 2025 met the same fate. HB 1232 marks his third attempt in three consecutive sessions.

It was during that 2023 debate that Kidwell's conduct drew its most explicit national attention. As Democratic Representative Diamond Staton-Williams spoke on the House floor about her personal decision to have an abortion and invoked her faith and her church, Kidwell turned to nearby staffers and said she must have meant the 'Church of Satan.'

The remark was overheard by a WRAL reporter. Kidwell was forced to resign his role as deputy whip. He did not apologise. Asked directly by reporters whether he wished to respond to calls for an apology, Kidwell walked away without speaking.

House Bill 1232

The bill is structured as a constitutional amendment. If passed by the General Assembly, it would be placed on the November 2026 ballot for voters to decide. Should voters approve it, it would take effect on 1 January 2027. The full text, available on the NC General Assembly's website, describes a distinct and separate human life beginning at the moment of fertilisation as 'a matter of indisputable scientific fact,' a characterisation that itself contradicts the longstanding medical and legal debate at the heart of reproductive rights law.

The bill makes no exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the mother. It does not carve out protections for in vitro fertilisation, which involves the fertilisation of multiple eggs, many of which are routinely discarded. Legal and medical analysts have noted this would place standard IVF treatment in the same legal category as abortion. Contraceptives that prevent implantation of a fertilised egg, such as IUDs, fall within the bill's scope as well.

The deadly force provision is not a hypothetical reading of vague language. The bill states explicitly: 'Any person has the right to defend his or her own life or the life of another person, even by the use of deadly force if necessary, from willful destruction by another person.'

Under the bill's own framing, a woman seeking an abortion is 'willfully destroying' a person. The logical conclusion, drawn by legal scholars and activists alike, is that a third party would be legally empowered to use lethal force to stop her.

Ben Moss, the bill's only co-sponsor, withdrew his name within days of the filing. In a statement posted publicly, Moss said: 'After further discussion and feedback from constituents and members of the community, I have decided to remove myself as a sponsor of House Bill 1232 in its current form. I believe additional work, clarification, and discussion are necessary before moving forward with legislation of this magnitude.' Kidwell is now the bill's sole sponsor and has not commented publicly.

Not a Drill

It is tempting, and perhaps comforting, to treat House Bill 1232 as an extreme outlier that will never survive the legislative process. House Speaker Destin Hall has not indicated his caucus has any appetite for it. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic declined to issue a formal statement to Snopes, noting the proposal was too unlikely to pass to merit one. The bill's co-sponsor removed his own name under public pressure.

However, a sitting, elected government official, serving his fourth term in a state legislature, used his official capacity to draft and file a bill that would enshrine into a state constitution the right to shoot a woman dead for ending a pregnancy. That is not a fringe internet post or an anonymous grievance. It is a formal piece of proposed law, filed on 13 May 2026 under the official seal of the North Carolina General Assembly, accessible on government servers and assigned a bill number.

The bill contains no mechanism to determine who qualifies as a righteous defender under its deadly force clause and who qualifies as a murderer. It does not require that the person using deadly force be a law enforcement officer, a relative, or anyone with any particular relationship to the pregnancy.

It extends the right to anyone. That means any person, anywhere in North Carolina, could theoretically invoke this constitutional amendment to justify killing a woman, a nurse, an anaesthesiologist, a clinic receptionist, or a pharmacist handing over a prescription.

North Carolina Democratic Representative Laura Budd put the contradiction plainly during a session on the bill. 'How can you profess to be pro-life if you're also advocating for the death penalty, especially in this case?' Kidwell did not respond. He has not responded to press inquiries from NC Newsline, Newsweek, or Snopes since the bill was filed.