The goal of the bill is to crack down on the flow of abortion pills into Tennessee.
By Catholics for Catholics
Seeking to crack down on the devastating effects of abortion pills, a Tennessee proposal would punish anyone who takes part in taking the life of an unborn child, treating it as a murder under state law.
Rep. Jody Barrett and Senator Mark Pody, the sponsors of the bill, say that unborn children have the right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment and that all laws protecting life in the state should pertain to them. The bill would castigate anyone who takes part in taking the life of an unborn child, including the person who supplied the pills and the woman who took the pills with the aim of ending the life of her unborn child.
Barrett told The Daily Wire that his legislation “extends equal protection rights to unborn children” so that the same laws in the criminal code against homicide would apply to people in the womb.
The Barrett and Prody proposal comes as figures demonstrate that thousands of abortions have taken place in Tennessee despite a trigger law that went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned. According to figures, in 2024 there were at least 5,870 abortions enabled through abortion pills sent into the state in violation of laws making medication abortions illegal.
“We don’t ban abortion; we have banned the practice of abortion by medical professionals. There is no crime in Tennessee for anyone else other than a medical professional that performs an abortion,” Barrett said.
His proposal, which would criminalize abortion for everyone who takes part in it, would help crack down on the abortion pill problem, which has so far baffled pro-life states, Barrett said. Many traditional pro-life groups have voiced opposition to laws that would criminalize abortion for the mother.
But Barrett says he wants to start a discussion with his proposal and that the figures show the traditional approach has not worked.
“My goal in presenting the bill and having it heard is for us to start having that conversation and have a deeper discussion about this topic and where our shortcomings are currently in the law that they’re preventing us from stopping this completely and ridding this practice completely from our society,” he said.
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