Representative Jason Zachary (R) of Knoxville has introduced a bill to criminalize abortion trafficking. If H.B. 1895 is passed, it will be a felony for an adult who is not the parent or guardian of a minor girl to transport her out of state for an abortion or to help her obtain abortion drugs.
Considering that an adult cannot even take a child for treatment of a broken arm without parents' permission, he thinks this proposal makes sense.
"There's no way you should be able to then take a child at their most vulnerable point in life … out of state or provide them with a pill to facilitate the abortion," he submits. "You have people that prey on those minor children, and then they facilitate an abortion for them by taking the child without the parents' consent."
Planned Parenthood, whose workers admit to doing this, claims that this proposal will have a "chilling effect and is dangerous and irresponsible."
"If you know a minor who miscarries, you're a potential suspect," claims Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi.
But as Live Action News points out, women and girls who miscarry are not in danger in Tennessee, nor anywhere else.
Zachary notes that the state has already handily passed a bill banning the abortion of any baby with a detectable heartbeat, so preborn children are currently protected from abortion in most cases in the state.
"We were already one of the strongest pro-life states in the country, and that legislation's … even stronger than the heartbeat bill that some states have passed," he tells AFN. "So, I feel really, really good about the prospects of this bill getting passed with overwhelming support from Republicans. We are a supermajority Republican state, so I feel good about it."
According to the measure, any adult who "recruits, harbors, or transports a pregnant unemancipated minor within this state for the purpose of" access to "criminal abortion" under Tennessee law "commits the offense of abortion trafficking of a minor." The violation would result in a Class-C felony.
The minor would not be subject to prosecution, even if she "consents."
