Why Jane Fonda Is Being Compared to Alex Jones After Nashville Shooting

Actress Jane Fonda has been compared to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones over resurfaced comments that she made about abortion.

Fonda said “murder” was a way to fight back against the Supreme Court‘s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade during an appearance ABC‘s The View in March.

Social-media users called for Fonda to pay a fine, posting that her remarks were directly linked to the deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.

Audrey Hales, 28, opened fire at Covenant School, a private Christian school, on Monday, killing three children and three adults. Police shot Hales dead on site and said officers were still investigating the motive behind the mass shooting.

Monday’s shooting in Nashville was the 13th school shooting since January 1, and the 129th mass shooting in 2023.

Police identified the victims as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 years old. The adults killed were Cynthia Peak, Mike Hill, both 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60, who was the head of Covenant School.

Fonda appeared on The View talk show alongside her Grace and Frankie co-star Lily Tomlin. She was asked about the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to overturn the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade legislation. This had protected a pregnant woman’s right to abortion.

Fonda told the panel: “We have experienced many decades now of having agency over our body of being able to determine when and how many children we have… We know what that’s done for our lives. We’re not going back. I don’t care what the laws are. We’re not going back to this.”

Fonda was also asked what other alternatives there were to protesting the ruling in the streets. The resurfaced video of her appearance on The View was published to Twitter and has had more than 20 million views.

“Well, I’ve thought of murder,” Fonda told co-host Joy Behar, who said that it was a joke.

But, since the clip resurfaced, social-media users have posted that Fonda should be held responsible for the Nashville shooting.

“Jane Fonda has blood on her hands for the terror in Nashville. Her rhetoric are pushing a narrative that it’s okay to murder those you disagree with,” tweeted political YouTuber MAGS.

Social-media strategist Chuck Callesto added: “FLASHBACK: Jane Fonda suggests people should ‘MURDER’ pro life Christians.. WORDS HAVE CONSEQUENCES..”

And 2020 GOP senate nominee Lauren Witzke wrote: “Jane Fonda and The View supported the idea of murdering Christian Pro-Lifers this month. They giggled like the wretched hyenas they are. Now that they have blood on their hands, do you think we will hear apologies?”

However, some people called for Fonda to pay damages for her comments and compared her to Infowars host Jones.

The conspiracy theorist was found to have defamed families of the victims of 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. A court ordered him to pay more than $1 billion in damages to the 15 plaintiffs.

While Jones did not incite violence with his comments, he was sued by the families after he spouted conspiracy theories on Infowars that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax. Jones also said that the grieving parents were actors paid by the gun-control movement.

“If Alex Jones was guilty of $1B – then Fonda is at least $5B. Equality,” wrote one person on Reddit.

But another pointed out: “I mean, she didn’t ‘encourage women to murder pro-life christians.’ Nothing about Christianity was mentioned and she didn’t specifically call out women to go do anything. She was just saying she will not listen if laws were to take away abortion rights and when asked if she had any other suggestion, she said the word ‘murder.’”

Other people on the Reddit thread also questioned whether a tangible link between Fonda’s comments and the Nashville shooting could be made.

“Should Jane have said what she said? No of course not. It was hateful, careless, divisive and inflammatory. But Jane Fonda is not responsible for this woman doing what she did. That woman had a choice—Fonda did not personally force her, coerce her or brainwash her into killing those people,” one person wrote.

“And even if this woman comes out and screams from the roof tops she did it because Jane Fonda told her to—that does not mean the woman should have obeyed. The crime lies in this woman’s actions not what other people say.”

Newsweek has emailed Fonda’s representatives for comment.