HB0005 (SB0419), a bill to incentivize women to murder their child(ren) in the womb, passed the TN House 71-23. With the exception of Representative Barrett and Representitave Gillespie, every Republican voted for this bill.
According to TN Right to Life, who supported this legislation, HB0005, “increases the civil liability of abortion distributors and prescribers who push abortion pills into Tennessee illegally. This legislation would allow mothers as well as other family members to sue for the wrongful death of the unborn child and increase the possible amount to recover at trial.”
Abolish Abortion TN responded to these claims by stating, “prescribers are not ‘pushing’ abortion pills into Tennessee, women who want to willfully murder their child(ren) are ordering the pills to Tennessee. This legislation would allow women to financially profit from successfully murdering their child(ren) in the womb. This bill will not ‘deter suppliers for illegally peddling abortion pills in Tennessee’, as they are protected by shield laws or shipped from another country. If this was really about the pills, all an individual would have to do is prove that they received pills into the state. But with HB0005, a mother can only be compensated if she can prove she murdered her baby using the pills that were shipped to her, not simply receive them.”
The concern of incentivization of murder was addressed in committee and on the house floor where an email from Abolish Abortion TN was referenced specifically. Representative Bulso responded that the bill should be advanced because pro-life organizations supported it and, as he did in committee, asserted the unbiblical notion that women should be seen as second victims of abortion, not perpetrators.
Tennessee had the opportunity to abolish abortion earlier this session with HB0570, which was killed in committee. Now, abortion not only remains legal until birth for pregnant women in the Volunteer State, but can now be financially rewarded up to $5 million.
