State Sen. Paul Rose, a Tennessee Republican, sponsored a law that punishes adults who help teens get abortions out of state without parental consent. A similar Idaho law was blocked by a federal judge last year. (John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Adults who help a pregnant Tennessee minor get an abortion without parental consent could face up to a year in prison when a new law takes effect in July.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed the so-called “abortion trafficking” legislation this week. Tennessee has a near-total abortion ban, and the latest restriction follows in the steps of a similar measure approved last year by legislators in Idaho. A federal judge temporarily blocked that law in November after reproductive rights advocates sued over its constitutionality.
Tennessee Sen. Paul Rose, a Republican who sponsored the proposal, and other abortion rights opponents said the law is meant to protect parental rights. “Passage of the Underage Abortion Trafficking Act is a victory for Tennessee parents and their daughters,” said Will Brewer, a Tennessee Right to Life lobbyist, in a statement.
Any adult who “recruits, harbors, or transports a pregnant unemancipated minor” to get an abortion — including abortion medication — without written, notarized consent of a parent or guardian could be punished. The law doesn’t apply to parents who help their children get an abortion out of state, Tennessee Lookout reported.
“This bill provides no consideration for pregnant teens in abusive family environments where disclosing pregnancy status may create a risk of physical or psychological harm, nor does it consider situations where a minor’s parent is absent or estranged to the point where obtaining notarized consent is not possible,” Bryan Davidson, policy director of the state’s American Civil Liberties Union affiliate, wrote in a letter to Lee last month asking him to veto the legislation.
During debate over the bill, Democrats pointed out that a child who is sexually assaulted by a parent would have to ask their abuser for permission to get an abortion elsewhere. The state’s abortion ban doesn’t include exceptions for rape or incest.
“I just want to draw attention to the fact that what we’re doing is pretty outlandish here,” said Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro in April. “We’re saying that if a father rapes his child, and the child gets pregnant, that the parents still have to consent for that child to work with any adult to terminate that pregnancy.”
