Tennessee AG appeals ruling that blocked part of abortion trafficking law

The state of Tennessee is appealing a July ruling from a federal judge that permanently blocked a portion of the state's abortion trafficking law.

Key Takeaways:

• Last month, a judge struck down a portion of a Tennessee law that prohibits the recruitment of minors across state lines for abortion.

• The judge ruled that the recruitment portion of the law violates free speech rights.

• The state has now appealed that ruling.

The Backstory:

In 2024, Tennessee passed a law that outlawed abortion trafficking. The law states:

[A]n adult commits the offense of abortion trafficking of a minor if the adult recruits, harbors, or transports a pregnant unemancipated minor within this state for the purpose of:

... Concealing an act that would constitute a criminal abortion from the parents or guardian of the pregnant unemancipated minor; ... Procuring an act that would constitute a criminal abortion for the pregnant unemancipated minor, regardless of where the abortion is to be procured; or ... Obtaining an abortion-inducing drug for the pregnant unemancipated minor for the purpose of an act that would constitute a criminal abortion, regardless of where the abortion-inducing drug is obtained.

In July, Senior Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Julia Gibbons struck down the recruitment portion of the law. Her ruling did not impact the law’s other provisions, which make it illegal to transport a minor out of state for an abortion.

In her ruling, Gibbons said that prohibiting "recruitment" is a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.

“Because abortion is generally illegal in Tennessee, the state may constitutionally punish speech made in direct furtherance of in-state abortions… The state may not, however, criminalize speech recruiting a minor to procure a legal abortion in another state,” she said. “Tennessee cannot criminalize ‘disseminating information about an activity that is legal in another state.’”

The Details:

According to The Tennessee Lookout, the office of Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed an appeal of Gibbons' ruling late last month. The appeal now rests with the Sixth Circuit Court.

In response, attorneys Daniel Horwitz, Melissa Dix, and Sarah Martin, who represent two women who filed the initial lawsuit challenging the law, have filed their own "cross appeal."

‘We never tell’: Planned Parenthood helping minors travel ‘every day’ for abortions

As The Tennessean reports: "According to court documents, the 'protective-cross appeal' is often filed when plaintiffs want a “backup plan in case that judgment is reversed.”

Skrmetti's office has not responded to media requests for comment, but Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi CEO Ashley Coffield released her own statement in which she rejected the state's appeal, referring to adults other than a minor's parent or guardian as "trusted adults."

“Forcing children to give birth is a barbaric act, and we cannot criminalize the trusted adults in a child’s life who share information about care and resources,” Coffield said. “This is a state where lawmakers vote in the affirmative to deny minors the right to an abortion, even in cases of incest and rape. Under the law permanently enjoined by the court, even sharing a website would be a crime, an obvious violation of the First Amendment."

The Tennessee law, notably, excludes parents and legal guardians of the unemancipated minors, and even a "a person who has obtained the written, notarized consent of the unemancipated minor's parent or legal guardian."

The Bottom Line:

Though Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry are obviously in favor of promoting abortion — even to minors — the Tennessee law exists to protect minors who are at risk of being coerced into a procedure that can cause lifelong trauma and ends a human being's life.

Children cannot receive medication at school without parental permission, yet the abortion industry would like these same children to be given information about where they can travel to kill their preborn babies, and be assisted in doing so — by any so-called 'trusted adult.'

Minors and preborn children deserve the full protection of the law from the devastation of abortion.