Last week, a Tennessee Republican lawmaker proposed legislation that could imprison any adult who “recruits, harbors or transports” a pregnant minor to get out-of-state abortion care. Parents and legal guardians would be exempt, but any other adult helping a minor — say an aunt or friend or abortion care provider — despite receiving the minor’s permission, would be subject to the penalty of a Class C felony which is three to 15 years in jail.
In a press statement, Ashley Coffield in the release, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi said such a measure would have a “chilling effect” on trusted adults and helpers who assist minors in accessing abortion care. It could be especially harmful to minors living in abusive households.
This isn’t the first time “abortion trafficking” legislation has been proposed or passed. Most recently, a lawmaker in Oklahoma proposed a similar bill that could send anyone who helps a minor obtain abortion care to prison for up to five years. In Texas, city officials in Lubbock County, near the border of New Mexico, passed a measure that would, through lawsuits filed by private citizens, penalize people who help women obtain abortions in another state. In Idaho, an “abortion trafficking” law passed in April 2023 that would charge people who help a minor arrange an out-of-state-abortion with a felony of up to five years in prison, but a federal judge blocked it in November 2023. In 2021, Missouri lawmakers tried to include in a provision in an abortion bill that would have made it unlawful to assist someone in obtaining an out-of-state abortion.