Tennessee Governor Signs Bill to Criminalize 'Abortion Trafficking'

On Tuesday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) signed a Invoice which prohibits adults from helping minors obtain an abortion or receive gender-affirming care without parental consent. The law will come into force from July 1.

However abortion is prohibited In the state, without an exception for rape or incest, the newly approved law will criminalize an adult who acquires abortion pills for a minor and “recruits, harbors or transports a pregnant minor” to facilitate an abortion without the consent of the minor. a parent or guardian. .

Violators of this law will face a Class A misdemeanor charge, carrying a potential prison sentence of just under a year.

This makes Tennessee the second state to pass the “abortion trafficking” law, after Idaho, which pioneered this type of legislation last year. Idaho's law, however, was immediately challenged by reproductive rights groups, leading to a federal judge. temporarily block its application last November.

Violating this law not only penalizes those who help minors obtain an abortion, but also creates provisions for future civil actions. It makes it possible to initiate proceedings against individuals accused of “abortion trafficking” by the pregnant minor, the biological father or the parents of the minor. The only circumstance in which the biological father cannot file a lawsuit is if the minor became pregnant as a result of rape.

However, this legislation provides few or no exemptions, including for minors who have been pregnant by their parents or guardians following rape. These laws are no different from Tennessee's abortion ban, which has been in effect since 2022, with the sole exception of a medical emergency.

“We decided that abortion was only possible to save the mother's life. Unless the parents approve it, you cannot take a minor across state lines to have an abortion,” says Sen. Paul Rose (R-Covington), who introduced the bill alongside the Rep. Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), told the Associated Press.

Supporters of the GOP bill continue to argue that it strengthens parental rights and protects minors from making irreversible decisions without their parents' knowledge.

Tennessee's law, like Idaho's, is the subject of scrutiny and possible lawsuits from advocacy groups who counter that it infringes on the rights of minors and can lead to dangerous and clandestine procedures.