No matter where we live or who we vote for, I think we can all agree that children having children doesn’t lead to the best outcomes. Medical evidence suggests that children who become pregnant are at higher risk of pregnancy complications as the physical strain of pregnancy takes a significant toll on a young body. Young mothers experience a higher rate of c-section births, preeclampsia, preterm birth, low birth weight, and infant death, just to name a few of the medical complications that these pregnant patients experience.
The social consequences of teen pregnancy are also significant. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist states, “The value of preventing pregnancies among teens is clear: it means that more women will have the opportunity to complete school, perhaps pursue careers, and wait until they are ready to begin families.”
Given this widely accepted medical evidence, we shouldn’t seek to punish individuals who help a child end a pregnancy. The abortion criminalization bill sponsored by Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, and Sen. Paul Rose, R-Covington, seeks to define a new pregnancy-related Class C felony called “abortion trafficking,” making it a crime to recruit, harbor or transport a young person to help them obtain abortion care or abortion pills.
To be clear, parents of the pregnant child are excluded from Class C felony prosecution under the proposed law, but another trusted family member, friend or other non-custodial caregiver are subject to prosecution. This law also opens up our citizens to civil liability for wrongful death of a fetus. This civil action against the trusted person can be taken by a number of individuals, including the unborn child’s biological mother or father and the pregnant child’s parents or guardian.
As a physician, I have to wonder what happens when someone asks how they can help their pregnant, 13-year-old niece obtain an abortion? Just by giving out information for out-of-state resources am I now opening myself up to civil litigation? What if someone asks me this same question outside of my medical office at a community event? We have seen the devastating consequences of this type of legislation already in Texas with Senate Bill 8 allowing a fellow Texan to sue their neighbor.
As a mother, my heart hurts knowing that some children are sexually abused. What hurts more is knowing that we have legislators in our General Assembly who refuse to create rape and incest exceptions to our current abortion laws and then want to add to that injury by penalizing a person who desires to help a child experiencing pregnancy after sexual abuse.
As a mother to a young girl, I am repulsed knowing this bill fails to respect the bodily autonomy of my child. According to this bill, a trusted aunt or friend is still subject to criminal prosecution even if the pregnant child desires to terminate her pregnancy.
Once again, this proposed legislation puts the government in control of complicated health decisions rather than trusting families and patients to choose their own futures. This bill doesn’t care about what a pregnant teen may want for herself. This bill starts to feel like state-sponsored child abuse and neglect along with state-sponsored forced birth.
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Scarier than the legislation may be the procedures that are conjured up in the executive branch upon enforcement of this law. And, with the introduction of yet another abortion criminalization bill by Rep. Debra Moody, R-Covington, it’s clear our supermajority legislature wants to use our government to survey our private health care decisions. Moody’s bill calls for the district attorneys general conference to report to the legislature annually on the number of reports of potential “criminal” abortions.
This cruel proposed legislation follows a devastating pattern. It sows division among our people, making criminals of those we want to trust in troubled times. Our legislators threaten the patient-physician relationship.
And in Tennessee, we don’t need more laws that keep us from loving and trusting our neighbors. Simply, this bill keeps someone from helping a child experiencing a health crisis. We must end this unrelenting attack on healthcare and the freedoms of Tennesseans by the supermajority in the General Assembly.
Whatever the outcome of this legislation, what is clear is that Tennessee remains a hostile state for pregnant patients, doctors, and families. The introduction of this legislation exerts yet another chilling effect in the legal landscape of obstetric care.
At the beginning of the legislative session in 2023, I said, “When politicians are criminalizing doctors, you better believe patients aren’t far behind.” We haven’t quite reached that marker yet, but this bill brings us closer.
All pregnant patients and families are at risk under these inhumane abortion laws, and the supermajority Tennessee Legislature is poised to continue making pregnancy-related experiences even more hazardous to our health.
The article in this post was originally published on Tennessee Lookout and parts of it are included here under a Creative Commons license CC BY-ND 4.0
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