A federal appeals court has struck down part of a Tennessee anti-abortion law. Meanwhile, two nonprofits made moves this week to avoid cooperating with requests from the state’s attorney general for documents involving mail-order abortion pills.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled against a 2024 provision on so-called “recruitment” of minors to get an abortion. Effectively, this made it a crime to counsel someone under 18 about abortion access, even if the abortion would happen in another state where it’s legal.
The plaintiffs challenging that law were Aftyn Behn, a Democratic state representative for part of Nashville, and Rachel Welty, an attorney who’s also on the board of the nonprofit Abortion Care Tennessee. They argued the law violated First Amendment protections for free speech, and the court agreed.
“The Sixth Circuit held what the Constitution has always required,” Behn said afterward on Substack: “the State of Tennessee cannot criminalize speech about topics the Republican Supermajority and the Attorney General’s office deems iniquitous, and it cannot export its abortion ban across state lines to regulate conduct its own laws do not govern.”
She dedicated the win to “the courageous frontline abortion workers and organizers in the South,” among others.
Requests for information versus petitions for protective orders
Two Tennessee nonprofits — Abortion Care Tennessee and Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi — both said they’ve received requests this month for information from Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. The request to ACT would include documents and communications involving people seeking mail-order abortion pills. The request to Planned Parenthood involves both abortion pills and gender-affirming care.
Both organizations have now taken the matter to chancery court, essentially asking for either protective orders to set the AG’s request aside altogether, or to narrow its scope.
“This so-called investigation is deeply disturbing,” read a statement from Ashley Coffield, who heads PPTNM. “Attorney General Skrmetti is targeting Tennesseans across the state for seeking or getting essential health care services. This is an obvious effort to further a political agenda to ban abortion, intimidate patients and providers, and shut down Planned Parenthood health centers, while violating the privacy of patients who have sought sexual and reproductive health care.”
Reached this week for comment, the AG’s office said only that it has the authority to request information as it determines next steps, that it wouldn’t comment specifically, and that it will respond to legal filings in court.
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