A new bill has been introduced in Tennessee that would hold people or groups who mail abortion pills into the state civilly liable for $5 million.
House Bill 26, or “The Unborn Child Protection Act of 2025,” was introduced by Rep. Gino Bulso as a means of lowering the number of illegal abortions being committed in Tennessee. The $5 million penalty would be wide-ranging, able to apply to individuals and groups alike. Under the bill, manufacturers and distributors of abortion pills, online abortion businesses like Hey Jane and Plan C, abortion industry volunteers, and even friends or family members of the women could all be held liable.
The text of the bill notes that it is a federal crime “to mail abortion pills or to receive abortion pills in the mail. Such conduct is punishable by imprisonment for five years; (4) It is also a federal crime… to transport abortion pills in interstate or foreign commerce…Violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1461–1462 are predicate offenses under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which exposes abortion-pill distribution networks and their donors to civil RICO liability as well as criminal prosecution as a racketeering enterprise….”
The bill’s text makes clear that any “person or entity” mailing or delivering “an abortion inducing drug” into Tennessee will be “strictly liable in the amount of five million dollars in damages for the death of the unborn child.”
The bill also defines what an “abortion inducing drug” is — clarifying that a drug or medication not intended to end a preborn human being’s life (such as misoprostol for “treating a stomach ulcer”) is not considered an “abortion inducing drug” (emphasis added): […]
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