Federal judge temporarily blocks Tennessee’s ‘abortion trafficking’ law

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked Tennessee from enforcing a law banning adults from helping minors get an abortion without parental permission.

In a 49-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger argued that the Republican-controlled state cannot “make it a crime to communicate freely” about legal abortion options even in a state where abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy except for a handful of situations. Trauger’s decision means that the law will be placed on hold as the case make its way through court.

“The Tennessee General Assembly apparently determined that, when the topic at hand is ‘abortion trafficking,’ the best interests of the pregnant child are not merely a secondary consideration, but unworthy of particularized consideration at all,” Trauger wrote.

Earlier this year, Tennessee’s Republican lawmakers and GOP Gov. Bill Lee signed off on a proposal making it illegal for an adult who “intentionally recruits, harbors, or transports” a pregnant child or teen within the state to get an abortion without consent from the minor’s parents or guardians. Those convicted of breaking the law risked being charged with a Class A misdemeanor, which requires a nearly one-year jail sentence.

The law, which went into effect July 1, did not contain exemptions for minors who may have been raped by their parents or guardians. Instead, the statute dictated that biological fathers who cause the pregnancy of their daughters, if minors, couldn’t pursue legal actions.

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