A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Tennessee law that bars adults from assisting minors in obtaining abortions without parental permission.
In a ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said states that ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions, “cannot criminalize the free communication” of legal abortion options.
The law will be put on hold while the case goes through the courts.
“The Tennessee Legislature appears to have decided that when the topic is ‘abortion trafficking,’ the best interests of the conceived child are not merely a secondary consideration, but simply do not merit special consideration,” Trauger wrote.
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A pro-abortion access demonstrator holds a sign during a rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on May 14, 2022. (Associated Press)
Earlier this year, lawmakers in the Republican-majority Tennessee Legislature passed a bill, subsequently signed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, that would make it illegal for an adult who “knowingly solicits, harbors, or transports” a pregnant minor in the state to perform an abortion without the consent of the child’s parents.
Those convicted of violating the law will be charged with a Class A misdemeanor that carries a prison sentence of nearly a year. The law does not include an exemption for minors who may have been raped by their parents, but a biological father cannot file a civil lawsuit if he rapes his daughter and impregnates her.
The Tennessee law, which took effect on July 1, is a copy of Idaho’s “abortion trafficking” law enacted last year, making the state the first to enact such a law, but a federal judge later temporarily blocked the Idaho law while the case went through court.
Just before Tennessee’s law was set to take effect, Democratic state Assemblyman Aftyn Behn and Nashville attorney Rachel Welty filed a lawsuit challenging the law, two years after the June 24, 2022, U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned Roe v. Wade, returning the right to legislate regarding abortion to the states.
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Rep. Aftin Behn (D-Nashville) speaks about a bill introduced in the House of Representatives on April 15, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee. (Associated Press)
Judge Trauger’s ruling upheld Welty and Behn’s arguments that the law was “unconstitutionally vague,” noting specifically that the word “recruit” is not defined in the law.
The justices also expressed concern about the First Amendment restrictions the law would impose.
“The First Amendment’s freedom of speech is not merely a special Constitutional protection for a few prominent speakers to make themselves heard; it is a protection extended to all, and mutually beneficial to all, because a message has its greatest power not by being uttered but by being disseminated,” Trauger wrote.
Behn called Friday’s ruling a “monumental victory” for the fight for free speech and access to abortion.


The law will be put on hold while the case goes through the courts. (Getty Images)
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“This ruling not only protects Tennesseans — it guarantees the freedom to discuss abortion care across state lines and ensures that we can continue to offer support, share accurate information and defend people’s rights to seek basic health care anywhere,” she told The Associated Press.
Tennessee bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with exceptions for hydatidiform moles, ectopic pregnancies, or to save the mother’s life. Doctors must exercise “reasonable medical” judgment when deciding whether performing an abortion will save the mother’s life or prevent serious injury.
Women’s groups are now filing a separate lawsuit to clarify the state’s abortion ban.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.