(LifeSiteNews) — A federal judge blocked part of Tennessee’s “Underage Abortion Trafficking Act,” which bars the recruiting, harboring, or transporting of a pregnant minor who is not their child to obtain an out-of-state chemical or surgical abortion, for purported violations of the First Amendment.
In a July 18 ruling, Senior 6th District Court of Appeals Judge Julia Gibbons, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, stated that the provision of the 2024 law that bans the “recruitment” of underage girls to obtain an out-of-state abortion violates the First Amendment by allowing speech discouraging abortion while prohibiting speech encouraging aborting an unborn child. The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Democratic pro-abortion state Rep. Aftyn Behn, who sought to block the legislation, alleging that the law violated “free speech.”
“(The recruitment provision) prohibits speech encouraging lawful abortion while allowing speech discouraging lawful abortion,” Gibbons wrote in the ruling. “That is impermissible viewpoint discrimination, which the First Amendment rarely tolerates — and does not tolerate here.”
“Because abortion is generally illegal in Tennessee, the state may constitutionally punish speech made in direct furtherance of in-state abortions,” the judge added. “The state may not, however, criminalize speech recruiting a minor to procure a legal abortion in another state.”
READ: New Tennessee law protects doctors, nurses from being forced to participate in abortion
“This is a disappointing decision that will put Tennessee minors at risk of being deceived into getting dangerous, life-ending abortions without parental consent,” Republican Deputy Speaker of the Statehouse Jason Zachary of Knoxville, the leading sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement to WKRN News 2. “Tennessee Republicans will continue fighting to protect children, preserve life and safeguard parental rights.”
In 2024, the “Underage Abortion Trafficking Act” (H.B. 1895/SB 1971) was passed overwhelmingly in both the Statehouse (74-24) and State Senate (25-4) before being signed into law by Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
READ: Tennessee passes bill banning adults from helping minors get abortions without parental consent
Pro-life organizations such as Tennessee Right to Life had stressed that the bill was needed because Planned Parenthood staffers across the country have been caught admitting they help female minors secure secret abortions without their parent or guardian’s knowledge.
🚨BREAKING PART ONE🚨
MOM CAN’T KNOW: Planned Parenthood (@PPFA) Transports Minors Across State Lines for Secret Abortions
“We never tell the parents anything.” – Managing Director, Kansas City, Missouri
RT & SHARE #SecretAbortions pic.twitter.com/TxtK2K2kFM
— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) December 21, 2023
Tennessee currently has some of the strongest pro-life laws in the country, prohibiting abortion in most circumstances with the exception of “protecting the mother’s life.” It’s worth noting that abortion, the violent destruction of an unborn child in their mother’s womb, is never medically necessary or justifiable.
About a month after the “Underage Abortion Trafficking Act” was signed into law and just days before it was set to take effect, Behn and pro-abortion activist and attorney Rachel Welty sued Tennessee’s district attorneys general, alleging that the law violated the First Amendment’s “Freedom of Speech” protections, to which the district court agreed.
In her ruling, Gibbons also noted that while the “recruitment” provision of the law is permanently blocked, the rest of the legislation remains in effect. The state of Tennessee also has the right to appeal the court’s ruling.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office did not respond to LifeSiteNews’ request for comment by publication time.
