Posted on 12/21/2024 1:25:48 AM PST by Morgana
A new bill has been introduced in Tennessee that would hold people or groups who mail abortion pills into the state civilly liable for $5 million.
House Bill 26, or “The Unborn Child Protection Act of 2025,” was introduced by Rep. Gino Bulso as a means of lowering the number of illegal abortions being committed in Tennessee. The $5 million penalty would be wide-ranging, able to apply to individuals and groups alike. Under the bill, manufacturers and distributors of abortion pills, online abortion businesses like Hey Jane and Plan C, abortion industry volunteers, and even friends or family members of the women could all be held liable.
The text of the bill notes that it is a federal crime “to mail abortion pills or to receive abortion pills in the mail. Such conduct is punishable by imprisonment for five years; (4) It is also a federal crime… to transport abortion pills in interstate or foreign commerce…Violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1461–1462 are predicate offenses under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which exposes abortion-pill distribution networks and their donors to civil RICO liability as well as criminal prosecution as a racketeering enterprise….”
The bill’s text makes clear that any “person or entity” mailing or delivering “an abortion inducing drug” into Tennessee will be “strictly liable in the amount of five million dollars in damages for the death of the unborn child.”
The bill also defines what an “abortion inducing drug” is — clarifying that a drug or medication not intended to end a preborn human being’s life (such as misoprostol for “treating a stomach ulcer”) is not considered an “abortion inducing drug” (emphasis added):
As used in this section, “abortion-inducing drug”: (1) Means a drug or medication that is intended to be used, and is used, to terminate the life of an unborn child; (2) Includes mifepristone, misoprostol, mifeprex (RU-486), when possessed or distributed for the purpose of terminating the life of an unborn child; and (3) Does not include a drug or medication that is possessed or distributed for a purpose that does not include the termination of the life of an unborn child, such as misoprostol that is possessed or distributed for the purpose of treating a stomach ulcer.
“I learned that there were some young ladies in Tennessee who had ordered and received abortion pills through the mail,” Bulso told The Tennessean. “I began thinking about what else we might be able to do, both to deter folks from breaking the law and to provide a civil remedy to the family of an unborn child who’s killed because abortion pills were illegally sent into the state.”
Rep. Bulso added, “It’s broader than just exposing manufacturers and distributors to liability. It imposes liability on any person or company who actually sends abortion pills or delivers abortion pills into the state for the purpose of killing an unborn child.”
Elisa Wells, co-founder of Plan C, told the Tennessean that her organization has no intention of obeying if this bill becomes law. “Tennessee House Bill 26 is a desperate political attempt to prevent abortion seekers from accessing abortion pills by mail, which has been proven to be a safe, effective, and common practice throughout the United States,” she said. “No amount of threat or fear will be successful in stopping abortion pills from entering Tennessee by mail.”
Preventing abortion pills from being mailed into pro-life states appears to be the next battleground between pro-life and pro-abortion states. Several pro-abortion states have passed “shield laws,” preventing pro-life states from taking legal action against abortion purveyors in pro-abortion states who violate the laws of pro-life states. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently sued a New York abortionist, Margaret Daley Carpenter, for illegally prescribing and mailing abortion pills to a woman in Texas.
That lawsuit, along with the Tennessee bill, could potentially have huge implications for the trafficking of abortion pills across the country.
Unlawful and unenforceable, this is one stupid idea.
Abortion rights are now back to the states. This is an abortion. The states are deciding.
I realize it’s a state issue. That’s a good thing IMO. Trying to regulate the use of the US Postal Service is not going to fly.
The mob is ready and waiting.
That is where this will all go.
Cant wait until rape and incest are returned to the states too!
I think the 10th Amendment makes it legal - if a State has a law against fireworks, they can fine folks for transporting them into their State....why not for importing other substances the State has declared illegal? No different than trying to stop marijuana from being sipped in...
There’s five ways to Sunday to abort a fetus. Stopping the abortion pill which might kill the recipient is just one of them. If these reluctant irresponsible child carriers are hell bent on offing the life within them there’s very little that we can actually do. There’s only one source that can change their mind and they would have to have an epiphany for that to happen.
Morally good, legally stupid.
God does not ask that you force others to obey His desires.
State law is only enforceable iinside of the state. State law has no jurisdiction on international or federal level entities or commerce.
This law is clearly a violation of the federal supremacy clause, the interstate commerce clause and international law as well.
States like New York and California have their own laws protecting their citizens from out of state laws with refusal for extradition or civil standing
I would expect the US Supreme Court to eventually smack down these types of laws hard they clearly violate state sovereignty. You simply cannot hold citizens of another state who are not physically in your state civil or criminal liability for possessing a substance legal in their state of presence. The fact they sent it to a citizen in another state is only enforceable on the person receiving the substance and if you want to light off a shit storm and get tossed out of office start trying to fine in state citizens 5 million for their own healthcare needs.
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