Two Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are proposing legislation that would subject women who have abortions to the same criminal penalties as those individuals charged with homicide, including the death penalty.
The proposed amendment would allow prosecutors to charge women with fetal homicide, a crime punishable by life imprisonment or death. The text states that “all preborn children should be protected with the same criminal and civil laws protecting the lives of born persons by repealing provisions that permit prenatal homicide and assault.”
According to The Tennessean, the bill excludes miscarriages and life-saving medical procedures from prosecution but contains no exceptions for rape or incest.
The bill, introduced and sponsored by Rep. Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, and Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, was referred to the House Population Health Subcommittee. It has not been formally filed or scheduled for a hearing, according to The Tennessean.
While lacking large support in the Legislature, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, a nonprofit that says its mission is to “exalt and vindicate the image of God by promoting sound public policy that provides all preborn human beings equal protection of the laws,” is publicly supporting the bill.
If passed, the law would go into effect July 1.
Current abortion law in Tennessee
Tennessee already has the some of the nation’s strictest anti-abortion laws. Abortion is currently a Class C felony, resulting in up to 15 years in prison and fines for physicians under Tennessee law.
Despite the state’s total ban enacted in 2022, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion claimed more than 5,000 telehealth abortions occurred “on Tennessee soil” in 2024. Additionally, Guttmacher Institute estimates suggest more than 10,000 Tennesseans traveled out of state for abortion services that same year.
State lawmakers have previously categorized mailing abortion pills as a felony and criminalized assisting a minor in traveling out of state for an abortion without consent, according to The Tennessean. The state also requires children in schools to watch a video on fetal development.
Reactions to the bill
Pody told WSMV4 that the proposed amendment currently lacks broad support in the Senate.
“We want to be very open and have a conversation, whether it’s controversial or not — let’s hear from all sides to see where we are as Tennessee and where we stand,” Pody said. “Talking to some colleagues, we don’t have the votes to move something like that in the Senate at this moment.”
Supporters of the bill include Clint Pressley, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, who voiced his support on X.
Opponents to the bill have characterized the bill as extreme. Israel Cook, state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which sued Tennessee over its abortion laws in 2023, said, “There’s nothing pro-life about this bill,” according to The Hill.
“Pregnant people are already suffering under Tennessee’s extreme abortion ban. And now, state lawmakers want to sentence pregnant people to death for pregnancy outcomes and getting abortions,” Cook said.
“People deserve respect and compassion, not this cruel, heartless treatment for getting essential health care.”
Rep. Monty Fritts, a co-sponsor of the bill and candidate for governor, recently told the Tennessee Holler, “Murder is murder. I know that’s hard for people to hear, and I don’t mean to be hard with it, I promise.”
He added that abortion should be considered a “capital crime because we have failed to identify that tiny little, jelly-bean-sized baby as a human being. If we kill a human being, we have to say it is murder.”