Pro-life abolitionist bill fails to gain traction in Tennessee

Last week, Laura Messick and two of her colleagues drove from Murfreesboro, Tenn., to the state Capitol in Nashville to explain to state Rep. Jody Barrett why they thought a bill he sponsored would impede their pro-life work. The measure proposed fully criminalizing abortion—including for mothers who take the abortion pill.

Messick, the executive director of Portico Pregnancy Resource Center in Murfreesboro, said the push to classify abortion as homicide in Tennessee ignores the perspectives of pro-life pregnancy centers that help pregnant women and their babies on the front lines of the debate. She worries that a so-called abolitionist law like Barrett’s would prevent women from seeking help from pregnancy centers in a state that already has some of the strongest pro-life laws in the country.

“We have a perspective that has been part of this conversation for more than 50 years, and we are the ones who sit across from women who are struggling and suffering,” Messick said of pregnancy resource centers. “This approach of criminalizing has caused a lot of consternation and confusion with pro-life people. … It’s presented in such a way that you’re made to feel like if you don’t see it that way, you’re not truly pro-life or you’re not truly even a Christ-follower.”

The Tennessee bill to criminalize abortion failed in committee on Tuesday after lawmakers in the House Population Health Subcommittee did not make a motion to bring it up for discussion. While the proposal is not moving forward, it has reignited debate over the best route to ending abortion—and sparked headlines claiming that Republicans wanted the death penalty for post-abortive women. Abortion abolitionist groups backed the bill, as did some pro-life advocates like Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley. But other pro-life leaders argued that prosecuting women conflicts with the movement’s goal of helping both babies and mothers.

Vulnerable babies, vulnerable women

Rep. Barrett and state Sen. Mark Pody introduced their versions of the bill last year as placeholders and amended them late last month to include language to give unborn babies killed by abortion the same rights as homicide victims. While abolitionist legislation was new to Tennessee, lawmakers have proposed similar bills in states across the country for years. Legislators in at least six states have filed their own measures for consideration this year, although proposals in South Dakota and Iowa have also failed. Currently, every state protects women from prosecution and no state has enacted a law to classify abortion as homicide.

In May 2022, a draft of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leaked, prompting questions about how abortion laws could change if the Supreme Court returned the issue to the states. Less than two weeks later, Louisiana lawmakers moved an abolitionist bill to a full House vote—and a coalition of more than 70 pro-life organizations released a letter opposing any measure that would punish women for having abortions.

Sarah Zagorski, spokeswoman for Americans United for Life, said that abolitionism is gaining ground among people who want to see quicker political action in protecting unborn babies. “A lot of this stems from, I believe, sometimes well-intended individuals who are frustrated that in the last three years since Dobbs abortion hasn’t been eliminated altogether,” she said.

Large pro-life organizations like AUL prefer an incremental approach to ending abortion. “We have had some huge successes. And even though it isn’t instantaneous, nothing in life that’s worthwhile is instantaneous, especially in an unjust world like we live in,” Zagorski said.

Pro-lifers like Zagorski say abolition does not address the more complex needs vulnerable women face and plays into the public fears that abortion advocates willingly foster with their own messaging. She points to the Dobbs decision and state-level laws requiring ultrasounds, waiting periods, and protecting women from coercion as examples of incremental victories.

Zagorski is an abortion survivor herself and said many women, like her biological mother, who choose that path may be living in poverty, experiencing abuse, and already have other children. She says that’s why the pro-life movement has long viewed women as the second victim of abortion. “Is our solution for those women to prosecute them and put them in jail for their abortions?” she asked. “It doesn’t take into account the wreckage that Roe brought upon society as a whole.”

Calling it what it is

But abolitionists argue the Bible is clear that authorities should apply justice without partiality. “I don’t think it’s merciful to tell women that they’re allowed to murder their children,” said Bradley Pierce, president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion. “To those who say that having a blanket exemption for women is merciful, do you apply that to any other area of law?”

Pierce says he has drafted legislation in more than 30 states, including the bill in Tennessee. He believes the measure would have strengthened existing protections for unborn babies and deterred both the pregnant woman who is seeking an abortion and others who might coerce her into one. “There are many people who get away with murder, but most do not. … The law still deters many, many, many murders from ever happening,” he said. “We’re just taking the existing homicide law that already protects born lives, and being sure that that law is extended to protect lives from the moment of fertilization.”

Kelly Lester was raped as a teenager and had her first of four abortions at 15 years old. She began living a life filled with drugs, sex, and abusive relationships, and she eventually started working at an abortion facility in Richmond, Va.

In her late 20s, she became a Christian, reconciled with her parents, and returned to the church her father pastors. Now she works as director of outreach for And Then There Were None, a pro-life organization that helps abortion workers leave the industry. She argues women should not be fully exempt from responsibility for their decisions. “We have no problem criminalizing the abortionist, but now the woman is becoming the abortionist because she’s the one taking the pills,” she said.

Lester supports abolitionist laws, and the organization she works for is planning a series of university campus events this spring called the Make Abortion Murder Again tour. “If it had been criminalized, I wouldn’t have chosen it as quickly or as readily or certainly as often as I did,” she said. “We need to call it what it is, and it’s murder.”

More to come?

After the Tennessee bill failed, Pierce released a statement blaming “left-wing media and pro-life establishment groups” for stopping it. He also singled out Republicans on the Tennessee House subcommittee that didn’t advance the bill. “Because of their cowardice and disobedience to God … thousands of preborn babies will be legally murdered on Tennessee soil over the next year,” he wrote.

Pierce added that hundreds of Christians had mobilized to the abolitionist cause in Tennessee, and he hinted at future efforts. “This battle is far from over, and by the grace of God, the work to abolish abortion in Tennessee will continue to advance in the years to come,” he wrote.

Messick said Tuesday she felt relieved that the measure had not progressed.

“We do understand the complexity of this issue, and we do understand why good people can see it both ways,” Messick said of the abolitionist position. But she believes the best way to save babies is to demonstrate Jesus’ love, care, and grace to their mothers. “I think pro-life people must exhibit mercy, and the Word tells us mercy triumphs over judgment,” she said.

Before the bill died in committee, some of the clients at Messick’s center had already been asking about the proposed bill, she said, including how it would affect women who take an abortion pill but then reach out to a resource center to try to reverse the abortion. Her staff asked questions about how the law would be enforced, what they might be required to report, and how the measure would apply to cases in which a woman was coerced into an abortion.

Messick said her concerns about the bill and pro-lifers’ confusion over it prompted her to meet with Barrett last week. “We didn’t find much agreement other than the fact that we obviously agree that human life is sacred, life begins at conception, and the unborn do deserve protection,” she said.