NASHVILLE, TN — Tennessee will have even greater powers to force people to give birth, under a travel ban aimed at stopping minors from leaving the state to obtain an abortion.
“Our state lawmakers have shown time and again that they want the power to force people to give birth, and they will go to more and more extreme lengths to achieve that goal,” said Francie Hunt, executive director of Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood. “The only way to stop this assault on freedom is to vote them out.”
During the debate, bill sponsor Rep. Jason Zachary said he brought the legislation after petitioning the governor unsuccessfully to prevent a 14-year-old girl from obtaining an abortion. The clip is available at The Tennessee Holler, and the original video is available on the General Assembly’s website.
“It’s chilling to hear a grown man seek the power to force a child to give birth,” Hunt said. “We have no exceptions in Tennessee to allow abortions in cases of rape, incest and barely any protections to save a patient’s life. In the worst cases, where a parent rapes a child, that perpetrator will have the power to force their victim to give birth.”
HB 1895 was featured in an ad released earlier this year on Meet the Press with an intense depiction of a pregnant girl handcuffed to a hospital bed. The legislation — now awaiting the governor’s signature — makes it a felony to help a minor obtain an abortion.
The law builds on one of the most extreme abortion bans in the nation — Tennessee’s Human Life Protection Act — which allows zero exceptions for rape or incest and barely any protections at all for a patient’s life. There have been 5,000 pregnancies in Tennessee resulting from rape since the ban took effect.
