Controversial bill that criminalizes abortion aid for Tennessee teens clears its first hurdle

A proposal that would make it a felony to help teens get abortions passed out of its first committee hearing Tuesday in Tennessee.

House Bill 1895 has several more votes to go before it can head to the governor’s desk.

The author, Rep. Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) and other lawmakers are trying to replicate Idaho’s controversial ban on so-called “abortion trafficking.” Among other things, it says anyone who buys abortion pills for a teen — who isn’t their child — can go to jail and face civil lawsuits.

The text also says it prohibits “recruiting, harboring, or transporting” teenagers seeking the procedure. The wording in the bill is very similar to the wording in an Idaho bill passed last year that a federal has temporarily block. That court’s decision said the wording was too vague because it didn’t define those three words. Tennessee’s version also lacks definitions.

That was one of many points of contention during debate.

Zachary, as well as a representative from the House’s legal team, said that because there is no existing definition in state codes for these words, they must default to dictionary definitions. Any further interpretation would fall to the judicial system in the form of court decisions on legal challenges.

“That would be an issue for the court to decide based on the facts and circumstances of each individual case … that is before them,” Zachary said.

But including a definitions portion of a bill is standard practice in Tennessee and most legislatures. These sections are often where the largest political debates take place. For instance, much of the debate over abortion exemptions focuses on the pertinent state law’s definitions section. When lawmakers added exemptions for ectopic and molar pregnancies in 2023, they did so by amending the definition of abortion.

Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) asked what recourse a teen could access if they are raped by their sole parent or guardian. Zachary replied that under circumstances of abuse, minors can file for emancipation.

“So, OK, based on your response then, if a child … wanted to seek health care, and their only sole parent or guardian was their rapist, that child would have to go to court — to petition a court to get access to health care?” Clemmons said.

“Well, it depends on your definition of health care,” Zachary said. “I do not define abortion — which is the killing of a baby — I do not define that as health care.”

Rep. Sabi ‘Doc’ Kumar (R-Springfield) voiced some ambivalence about the policy, saying that children should be able to depend on their parents, but that in the instance of incest, they can’t. He also said that teen pregnancy is polarizing.

“A pregnant minor presents the most difficult of situations to us — and and to community and the country at large,” he said. “About half of us believe it is unconscionable to allow and force this child to go through a pregnancy to term. The other half believes it is murder and morally wrong to kill the child … that is how divided we are.”

Danielle Pimentel, policy counsel for a national anti-abortion organization called Americans United for Life, testified to the committee in support of the bill.

“Minor girls are more likely to feel pressured into an abortion than adult women,” she said. “The bill aims to protect against this type of coercive abuse and deter abusers from trafficking minor girls to obtain abortions — criminal abortions — and this is a legitimate concern here for Tennessee minor girls.”

None of the 24 states with abortion bans have criminalized obtaining abortions out of state.

Idaho’s similar version of this bill passed into law, but it’s not in effect. Abortion access advocates challenged it federal court. In November, U.S. District Magistrate Debora K. Grasham ordered Idaho to hit the brakes on enforcing the law. She agreed with the abortion access advocates, saying the law raises constitutional problems. She took issue with ambiguity in the law, raising the concern that it gives law enforcement an opportunity to apply the law arbitrarily.

She also raised First Amendment issues.

“Plaintiffs’ activities aimed at providing information, support, and assistance about reproductive health options, including legal abortion services, to pregnant individuals constitute protected speech,” the ruling reads in part.

In Tennessee, the Senate’s version has been referred to the Judiciary Committee, but it hasn’t gotten a hearing yet.