House and Senate committees in the Tennessee state legislature have both approved legislation that recognizes the humanity of babies killed in abortions. Both panels approved what would be a new state law that requires abortion facilities to cremate or bury the remains of aborted babies.
Supporters of the measure say it helps underscore the humanity of unborn babies, who at least should be afforded a proper cremation of burial if they’re killed in abortions utnil the law can ban abortions and protect babies fully.
Senate Bill 828 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 7-2 party-line vote. It is being scheduled for a floor vote. House Bill 1182 was approved by the Health Committee on a voice vote.
In presenting the bill, Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, said the measure states that it “would be the responsibility of the mother of the aborted child or the abortion facility to provide at their expense a burial or cremation.”
The woman could choose to refuse, and the clinic or a doctor’s office would make the decision and would be responsible for costs.
Noting the bill doesn’t restrict access to abortion, Bowling said “it only attempts to guarantee an acceptable level of respect for an aborted child.”
“Tennessee code requires pets and animals to be disposed of by burial or cremation but there is no such law active in Tennessee for aborted fetal remains,” said Rep. Tim Rudd, a Republican from Murfreesboro. “I think it’s time for Tennessee to step up and give the same level of dignity given to a dead pet to a dead human being.”
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The language in the Tennessee proposal is identical to an Indiana law that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019.
Governor Bill Lee has not weighed in on the bill specifically but he is pro-life bill and has signed measures to help save babies from abortion.
In the past several years, a number of states have passed legislation to regulate how abortion facilities dispose of aborted babies’ bodies. Their actions came in the wake of viral undercover videos that exposed top officials at Planned Parenthood negotiating the prices of aborted babies’ body parts. Later, the Ohio Attorney General’s office discovered that Planned Parenthoods in Ohio contract with waste disposal companies that dispose of aborted babies in landfills. Indiana passed a similar law and later won a victory at the Supreme Court in 2019.
A gruesome discovery inside a late Indiana abortionist’s garage in 2019 further demonstrated the need for such laws. In September 2019, authorities found 2,246 medically preserved remains of aborted babies stored in boxes in the former Indiana abortionist Ulrich Klopfer’s garage in Illinois. A few weeks later, they found 165 more babies’ remains in a vehicle stored on one of his properties. Klopfer’s family reported finding the remains shortly after he died.
