A bill aiming to treat abortion as homicide has failed in Tennessee

Bills that would treat abortion as homicide have been proposed in other states. While they have consistently failed, some are still being considered.

A bill that sought to charge women who seek abortions with homicide — a crime punishable by the death penalty — failed unceremoniously in Tennessee on March 10.

House Bill 570, sponsored by Rep. Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, would have removed legal protections for pregnant women currently in statute, and classified harm done to an unborn child as equal to assault on a person “born alive.” Women who get abortions could have been prosecuted for homicide, which carries a sentence of life imprisonment or in some cases, the death penalty.

No member of the House Population Subcommittee made a motion to hear the bill on March 10, so the bill was pronounced dead. Outbursts followed, and the committee chair ordered the room cleared.

The bill, which has divided anti-abortion advocates, is the latest in a wave of similar legislation that has failed to become law across the country. The bills show the "terrifying lengths that the anti-abortion movement is willing to go to ban abortion," according to Israel Cook, state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

"While we are glad to see Tennessee’s bill fail, these kinds of bills should be taken seriously regardless of whether or not they pass this year," Cook told USA TODAY. "Anti-abortion lawmakers have been increasingly and repeatedly introducing this legislation across the country in hopes that their citizens will eventually stop paying attention so they can push these efforts forward."