Tennessee lawmakers consider laws imposing severe penalties on abortion
State Rep. Aftyn Behn discusses Republican attempts to impose fetal personhood, anti-trafficking laws and costly fines that would make abortion impossible to get
Tennessee State Rep. Aftyn Behn spoke to me about recent developments in her state that threaten abortion rights and the freedom within which women can make decisions about their reproductive fates.
Most notably, within the state legislature, Republicans have introduced a bill that would permit a $5 million civil lawsuit to be filed by families of women who get abortions against medication abortion providers that send prescriptions to women living there.
“It may take years for the worst of the outcome to be enacted, but the goal is to incite fear and misinformation, and so they'll continue to do this,” Behn said. “And I think it's a testament to just how draconian they want the punishments to be.”
The Tennessee legislature is overwhelmingly Republican. In the Senate, there are 27 Republicans and six Democrats. In the House of Representatives, 75 Republicans fill seats to the 24 Democrats. That reality means the opposition can’t thwart antiabortion efforts to curb reproductive rights.
That’s also been accompanied by a resolution introduced earlier this month that seeks to establish fetal personhood or the legal principle that legal protections begin at conception. If that were to become the law, then abortion would be a punishable offense akin to homicide and possibly carry with it the same penalties, including life imprisonment and the death penalty.
As I’ve written about before, the murkiness of who is responsible for an abortion when mifepristone and misoprostol are used leaves questions about who will be prosecuted under such a legal framework. Is it the woman who ingests it? Or the doctor who prescribes it?
Additionally, Behn is still involved in a lawsuit over whether an anti-trafficking bill forbids adults from recruiting or advising teenagers who want or need an abortion. She and her fellow plaintiff, attorney Rachel Welty, had the law nullified by a judge who later had to recuse herself before the matter was settled.
Regardless of whether that decision stands, it will still be appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and possibly later to the Supreme Court. A similar lawsuit has unfolded in Idaho, which had the first anti-trafficking law.
“We've entered a new realm,” Behn said. “They want to cut off all interstate travel and any type of commerce going in and out of the state when it comes to abortion or trans care. I just don't know how successful they will be, and I don't know where the line is drawn.”
This may be a point of further research for me in the next few years, as I plan to travel across the South and Texas to see in person the real effects of abortion bans and restrictions. Any people who want to share their stories of being denied care or having their work in abortion care affected can contact me on social media or through email at codymcdevitt@gmail.com