Yesterday, the Tennessee General Assembly adjourned Sine Die (concluding their Session) without passing Tennessee Right to Life's priority legislation. HB 0005/SB 0419 would have created mandatory civil damages in a wrongful death civil lawsuit against out of state abortion pill providers. After two years of negotiations on the parameters of the bill, SB 0419 was primed for passage yesterday. However, due to an obscure parliamentary rule regarding a separate bill that was rejected earlier in the day, SB 0419 was deemed ineligible to move forward and, thus, was killed.

There was discretion that could have been used by Senate leadership to allow SB0419 to move forward and, despite extensive lobbying by Tennessee Right to Life and the bill’s sponsors, leadership decided to let the bill die.

“It is devastating and inexcusable that, despite a consensus by both Chambers being reached on this Bill, that it was allowed to fail,” said Will Brewer, Lobbyist for Tennessee Right to Life. “Babies will continue to be murdered, women will continue to be taken advantage of, and abortionists will continue to profit off of all of it due to this absurd situation.” 

Tennessee Right to Life is grateful to Rep. Gino Bulso and Sen. Joey Hensley for their sponsorship of this bill and their tireless pro-life efforts to advocate for its passage.

On April 27, a three-judge panel was scheduled to begin a trial in the case, Phillips v State of Tennessee, challenging the Human Life Protection Act, the law that protects unborn children and their mothers from the horror of abortion in our state. The case was first brought to court in September of 2023 by three women and 2 physicians. The women claim that their right to life is in danger while the doctors claim the law is too vague for them to care for patients whose lives might be in danger. 

The case has taken many twists and turns since then. In 2024, a three-judge panel ruled that while the case was being heard, physicians could not be sanctioned by the state’s medical board for aborting children in an emergency situation. 

In 2025, the General Assembly amended the HLPA to clarify that certain conditions were covered under the medical exceptions that the law allows. They intended that the new clarifications would satisfy the judges and the case would be dropped.  Despite the clarification, the judges ruled that the case should continue to trial.

The legislature passed SB1731 this year, which allows for an automatic immediate appeal of a Chancery Court decision. Attorney General Skrmetti was able to use that to appeal the Trial Court’s decision earlier this week to deny his request for summary judgment. 

It helped that the Attorney General could use the legislature’s intent in SB1731 in the appeal by saying the Legislature has been definitive in their intent for the State to have more Sovereign Immunity.

"We are grateful to the General Assembly for enacting legislation this year to bolster the Attorney General’s position in the Phillips case. We are also grateful for the Attorney General’s team for using every weapon in their arsenal to protect life in this State," said Stacy Dunn, President of Tennessee Right to Life.