AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 20; Title 29; Title 37; Title 39; Title 49; Title 53; Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71, relative to reproductive health care.
SB0187 creates a new chapter in Tennessee law called the “Reproductive Freedom Act.” It defines abortion, pregnancy, and “reproductive health care,” and states legislative findings that individuals have a fundamental right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including contraception, continuing a pregnancy, and obtaining an abortion. The bill also declares that a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under Tennessee law.
The bill then prohibits the state and its political subdivisions from denying, restricting, interfering with, or discriminating against those rights in the provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information. It also bars criminalization of actions taken in exercise of those rights and prohibits prosecution or punishment based on the potential, actual, or perceived impact of a person’s conduct during pregnancy. In addition, the bill requires exchange-based health plans to cover reproductive health care and makes several conforming changes across the Tennessee Code by deleting or amending provisions related to abortion, reporting, licensing, criminal penalties, and related health-care regulation.
If enacted, SB0187 would substantially revise Tennessee law by creating affirmative statutory protections for reproductive autonomy and by repealing or narrowing multiple existing provisions across titles governing government powers, courts, criminal law, education, health care, professional regulation, and insurance. It would also require certain health plans offered through the state exchange to include coverage for reproductive health care, and it would remove or modify reporting and regulatory provisions tied to abortion and related services. The bill would therefore shift state policy from restriction and regulation toward express legal protection of reproductive health services and decision-making.
The available record does not include committee debate or recorded votes, so there is no direct transcript evidence of support or opposition. Based on the bill’s text, the measure is strongly pro-choice and rights-expanding in nature, suggesting it would likely be viewed favorably by reproductive-rights advocates and opposed by abortion opponents and groups concerned about the bill’s effect on existing restrictions and enforcement mechanisms.
The main points of contention are likely to be the bill’s explicit recognition of a fundamental right to abortion and contraception, its statement that embryos and fetuses have no independent or derivative rights under state law, and its broad prohibition on state interference with pregnancy-related decisions. Opponents would likely object to the repeal of numerous existing statutes and the requirement that exchange plans cover reproductive health care, while supporters would emphasize bodily autonomy, access to care, and the removal of criminal and regulatory barriers.