{"id":31033,"date":"2026-03-03T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=31033"},"modified":"2026-03-04T18:43:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:43:46","slug":"tn-bill-would-allow-death-penalty-for-women-who-have-an-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/tn-bill-would-allow-death-penalty-for-women-who-have-an-abortion","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Bill Would Allow Death Penalty For Women Who Have an Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two Tennessee Republicans are seeking to impose the death penalty on women who have abortions, requiring the same penalties for women \u201cinvolved in the homicide of her own unborn child\u201d as defendants charged with homicide.<\/p>\n

An amendment drafted for House Bill 570\/Senate Bill 738<\/a> that’s not yet been voted on would allow prosecutors to charge women who obtain abortions with fetal homicide, punishable by life imprisonment, life without parole, or in some cases, the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Sponsored by Rep. Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, and Rep. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, the bill was referred to the House Population Health Subcommittee and is not yet on the calendar to be considered.<\/p>\n

The bill specifically removes legal protections for pregnant women currently in statute, and classifies harm done to an unborn child as equal to assault on a person “born alive.”<\/p>\n

It would not apply to \u201ca spontaneous miscarriage,\u201d or to \u201cunintentional death of an unborn child\u201d after \u201cundertaking life-saving procedures\u201d to save the life of the mother and \u201cto save the life of the unborn child.\u201d No other exceptions are specified in the amendment text.<\/p>\n

Retroactive prosecutions of women who were \u201cinvolved in the assault of her unborn child\u201d or \u201cinvolved in the homicide of her own unborn child\u201d before the bill goes into effect would not be allowed.
\nIf passed, the bill would take effect July 1.<\/p>\n

Faith Leaders, Politicians Line Up Behind Tennessee Abortion Abolition Effort<\/h2>\n

Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley endorsed the bill on Feb. 19, saying it would \u201cprovide preborn children with equal protection of the laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy protecting the lives of preborn children with the same laws that protect people who are born, we are simply loving our neighbors in the womb as ourselves,\u201d Pressley wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n

The issue of abortion abolition has been contentious in the denomination in recent years. In 2022, a leader of the denomination’s public policy arm signed a letter opposing any measures “seeking to criminalize or punish women who have abortions.”<\/p>\n

Barrett thanked Pressley for his support.<\/p>\n

Barrett and Pody’s bill is also backed by the Foundation to Abolish Abortion<\/a>, a nonprofit whose mission is to \u201cexalt and vindicate the image of God by promoting sound public policy that provides all preborn human beings equal protection of the laws.”<\/p>\n

Since the state\u2019s total abortion ban went into effect, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion claims that there were more than 5,000 telehealth abortions \u201con Tennessee soil\u201d in 2024, and more than 10,000 abortions provided to Tennesseans by clinicians out of state, based on estimates from the Guttmacher Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder this legislation, murdering anyone would be made illegal for everyone, ensuring that all humans made in the image of God are equally protected in accordance with the Tennessee Constitution, the United States Constitution, and the Law of God,\u201d the group said in a press release.<\/p>\n

Tennessee has had some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country since the state\u2019s \u201ctrigger ban\u201d took effect in 2022. The Human Life Protection Act prohibits all abortions from fertilization, with no expectation for rape or incenst. Narrow medical exceptions exist for ectopic and molar pregnancies, but does not cover fatal fetal diagnoses.<\/p>\n

Performing an abortion is a Class C felony in Tennessee, resulting in up to 15 years in prison and fines for physicians.<\/p>\n

In recent years, lawmakers have made it a felony for companies and delivery services to fulfill orders for abortion pills by mail in Tennessee, made it a crime to help a minor travel out of state for an abortion without parental consent and required school children to watch a video on fetal development.<\/p>\n

A measure to encode women\u2019s access to contraception and in-vitro fertilization care very narrowly passed the House of Representatives last year. A group of lawmakers urged Gov. Bill Lee to veto the bill.
\nLegislation is currently pending that seeks to heavily regulate IVF.<\/p>\n

Rep. Monty Fritts, R-Kingston, who has signed on to the bill as co-sponsor, and is running for governor, has repeatedly expressed support<\/a> for imposing the death penalty on women who receive abortions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMurder is murder. I know that\u2019s hard for people to hear, and I don\u2019t mean to be hard with it, I promise,\u201d Fritts recently told the Tennessee Holler, later likening abortion-inducing pills to \u201ca cyanide capsule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fritts said he feels abortion should be considered a \u201ccapital 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.”
\nFritts did not respond to a request for comment from The Tennessean.<\/p>\n

This article was written by Vivian Jones and originally appeared in The Tennessean<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Tennessee Republicans are seeking to impose the death penalty on women who have abortions, requiring the same penalties for women \u201cinvolved in the homicide of her own unborn child\u201d as defendants charged with homicide. An amendment drafted for House Bill 570\/Senate Bill 738 that’s not yet been voted on would allow prosecutors to charge…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":630,"featured_media":31039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTennessee Bill Would Allow Death Penalty For Women Who Have an Abortion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Twolicans are seeking to impose the death penalty on women who have abortions, requiring the same penalties for women as defendants charged with hicide.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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