Tennessee’s Kill Bill: The State That Can’t Keep Mothers Alive Wants to Execute Them Instead

Political Analysis

HB 570 would classify abortion as homicide — in the state with America’s worst maternal death rate.

Tennessee wants to execute women for having abortions. That’s not hyperbole. That’s not a liberal fever dream. That’s House Bill 570, an amendment filed by Republican state Rep. Jody Barrett and co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Pody and three other GOP lawmakers — all men, naturally — that would classify abortion as “homicide of an unborn child” under Tennessee’s existing criminal code. And in Tennessee, homicide carries the death penalty.

Here’s how the trick works. The word “death penalty” doesn’t appear anywhere in the amendment’s text. Instead, the bill says abortion should be subject to “the same presumptions, defenses, justifications, laws of parties, immunities and clemencies as would apply to the assault of a person who had been born alive.” That’s legislative sleight-of-hand. You don’t say “death penalty.” You just reclassify abortion as first-degree murder. And then Tennessee’s existing murder statutes do the rest. Life in prison. Life without parole. Lethal injection.

When NewsChannel 5 asked Barrett directly whether the death penalty could apply, he didn’t deny it. His actual answer was: sure, technically, but it’s “just not realistic” because Tennessee has only executed 16 people since 1977. Oh good. Only 16. Super reassuring. Thanks, Jody.

But here’s where it gets really fun. One of the co-sponsors is Rep. Monty Fritts, who is currently running for governor. Fritts doesn’t do the Barrett dance of technically-yes-but-probably-not. He goes full send. He told the Tennessee Holler that abortion should be a “capital crime” and compared abortion pills to cyanide capsules. His campaign slogan? “Liberty & less government.” Liberty. And less government. For the man who wants the state to execute women for healthcare decisions. The jokes genuinely write themselves.

The bill was initially filed as something about a monument at the state capitol. A monument. They rewrote it into a death penalty framework for abortion patients. That’s the legislative equivalent of inviting someone to brunch and then serving them a subpoena.

Now. Let’s talk about why this is especially insane in Tennessee specifically. Tennessee has the highest maternal mortality rate in the entire country. That’s not an opinion — it’s CDC data. The state’s rate is 42.1 deaths per 100,000 births, nearly double the national average. The March of Dimes gave Tennessee dead last ranking — 48th out of 48 states with reportable data — for maternal mortality in their 2025 report card. Seventy-six percent of those deaths were preventable.

Tennessee already has a near-total abortion ban with zero exceptions for rape or incest. It’s a Class C felony for doctors, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The state has refused to expand Medicaid. Women on TennCare — the state’s public insurance for people in poverty — are three times more likely to die during or after pregnancy than those with private insurance. In July 2025, a doctor in Tennessee used the state’s Medical Ethics Defense Act to deny a pregnant woman prenatal care because she wasn’t married. Read that again. She was denied prenatal care. For being unmarried. In 2025.

So this is the state that can’t keep pregnant women alive. This is the state that won’t expand healthcare coverage. This is the state where being unmarried can get you turned away from a doctor’s office while pregnant. And their legislative priority is figuring out how to execute women who terminate pregnancies.

The bill has narrow exceptions for miscarriage and life-threatening emergencies. But here’s what the exceptions don’t cover: rape. Incest. Fetal anomalies incompatible with life. A 13-year-old who was assaulted. Under this framework, prosecutors could charge anyone who “assists” in an abortion — doctors, nurses, the friend who drove you to the clinic, potentially even someone who helped you order pills online.

The Foundation to Abolish Abortion — which announced and promoted the bill — put out a statement saying “murdering anyone must be illegal for everyone.” The Southern Baptist Convention president endorsed it. The same Southern Baptist Convention that made headlines in 2019 for systematically covering up sexual abuse by church leaders. The same institution that protected rapists now wants to execute their victims for not carrying pregnancies to term.

I need you to sit with that for a second.

The good news — such as it is — is that even the Senate sponsor admits the bill doesn’t have the votes. Sen. Pody told reporters he doesn’t think it can pass in its current form. The amendment hasn’t been formally filed yet and isn’t on any committee calendar.

But that’s not the point. The point was never to pass this bill right now. It’s the Overton Window. Last year South Carolina introduced a similar bill redefining personhood to criminalize abortion as homicide. Over a dozen states have introduced “equal protection” legislation in the past year. The Texas Republican Party platform calls for it. Each bill normalizes the next one. Each introduction makes the idea slightly less shocking. And one day it won’t be a bill that lacks votes. It’ll be one that has them.

Tennessee already ranks dead last for keeping mothers alive. And instead of funding hospitals, expanding Medicaid, reimbursing doulas, or doing literally anything to address why women are dying, their legislature is debating whether to kill more of them.

Pro-life. Sure.

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