A bill introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly would criminalize abortion trafficking of minors.
HB 1895 “creates the criminal offense of abortion trafficking of a minor; provides for a civil action against a person committing the offense of abortion trafficking of a minor for the wrongful death of an unborn child that was aborted,” according to its summary.
The full text of the bill is not yet available, but The Tennessee Star reached out to the bill’s sponsor, State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), who said abortion trafficking is “considered recruiting, harboring or transporting” minors to have abortions in other states.
Tennessee outlawed abortion in most cases following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“Tennessee has the strongest pro-life law in the country. We have saved over 10,000 babies since this law has been enacted. There are those who are trying to find ways [to] circumvent the law in an effort to facilitate abortions for minors,” Zachary (pictured above) told The Star. “This legislation has been drafted to address challenges to similar proposals in other states but most importantly, it will protect vulnerable unemancipated minors from those who wish to facilitate the abortion of the minor’s baby without the guardian or parent’s knowledge.”
Abortion is still the subject of controversy in Tennessee, even among some Republicans.
Earlier this month, State Senator Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville) introduced a bill to expand abortion access in situations “where either the child cannot survive outside of the womb, or it’s a condition where, if the woman is not treated properly, that she could end up unable to have children,” as reported by The Star.
“I just think that’s a basic human right, and it’s the freedom to be able to have children and be able to have a family,” he said, adding that “under present Tennessee law, the state legislature has a law that would cause women to be sterile and unable to bear children, even if they want to bear children, they would have to leave the state in order to be treated.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on X / Twitter.
Photo “Jason Zachary” by Jason Zachary.
