Tennessee Republicans Propose Bill Treating Abortion as Homicide, Potentially Subjecting Women to Death Penalty

By Sam Barron | Monday, February 23, 2026, 5:07 PM EST

Two Tennessee Republicans have introduced a bill that would classify abortion as homicide, making women who undergo the procedure eligible for capital punishment.

The amendment to House Bill 570/Senate Bill 738, proposed by state Representatives Jody Barrett and Mark Pody, would allow women who have abortions to be charged with fetal homicide and face imprisonment or death.

Women would not be prosecuted in cases of “a spontaneous miscarriage” or the “unintentional death of an unborn child” that follows “undertaking lifesaving procedures” to save the life of the mother or unborn child, according to reports.

The legislation has been supported by Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley and the Foundation to Abolish Abortion. Pressley stated on social media: “By protecting the lives of preborn children with the same laws that protect people who are born, we are simply loving our neighbors in the womb as ourselves.”

Tennessee’s current Human Life Protection Act bans all abortions from fertilization without exceptions for rape or incest. Individuals who perform abortions in Tennessee face up to 15 years in prison. The state also prohibits fulfilling orders for abortion pills or assisting minors in traveling out of state for an abortion without parental consent.

The Foundation to Abolish Abortion estimates that there were more than 5,000 telehealth abortions in Tennessee in 2024 and over 10,000 abortions provided to Tennesseans by out-of-state clinicians, based on data from the Guttmacher Institute.

The foundation stated: “Under this legislation, murdering anyone would be made illegal for everyone, ensuring that all humans made in the image of God are equally protected in accordance with the Tennessee Constitution, the United States Constitution, and the Law of God.”

State Representative Monty Fritts, who is running for governor, has endorsed the bill, calling abortion murder. “Murder is murder,” he said. “I know that’s hard for people to hear, and I don’t mean to be hard with it, I promise.”

Fritts further described abortion as a “capital crime because we have failed to identify that tiny little, jelly bean-sized baby as a human being. If we kill a human being, we have to say it is murder.”

Sam Barron has nearly two decades of experience covering politics, crime, and business.