In June 2025, the Supreme Court upheld Jonathan Skrmetti's law protecting Tennessee kids from gender transition drugs.
Now two federal judges appointed by Obama and Biden have struck down part of another Tennessee law protecting kids.
And one line in their ruling treats siding with an unborn baby as a constitutional problem.
Idaho Abortion Trafficking Case Left a 15-Year-Old's Parents in the Dark
In May 2023, a 15-year-old girl from Pocatello, Idaho, was driven 550 miles to Bend, Oregon, for an abortion.
Police say her boyfriend and his mother took her there.
She told investigators she was "happy" about the pregnancy, but her boyfriend refused to support a child and threatened to end the relationship.
His mother allegedly warned the girl she'd be evicted if she told her parents.
Her mother thought the girl was living with her father and only learned the truth later.
The boyfriend and his mother were both charged with second-degree kidnapping, and the son was also charged with rape.
That's the nightmare Tennessee lawmakers set out to stop.
Sixth Circuit Strikes Down Tennessee's Abortion Trafficking Recruiting Ban
In 2024, Tennessee made it a crime for an adult to recruit, harbor, or transport a pregnant minor for an abortion without her parents' consent.
Sponsor Rep. Jason Zachary called it a defense of parental rights and a shield for sexual abuse victims pressured into abortions.
Parents themselves were exempt.
On September 24, a Sixth Circuit panel ruled 2–1 that the recruiting provision violates the First Amendment.
Senior Judge Jane Stranch, an Obama appointee, wrote the majority opinion, and Judge Kevin Ritz, a Biden appointee, joined her.
Stranch ruled Tennessee had "no compelling interest in shielding its citizens from information about activities outside its borders."
Then came the stunning line.
She objected that the law "criminalizes speech that encourages a minor to get an abortion yet is silent on speech encouraging a minor to carry a pregnancy to term."
A federal judge just treated a law that favors a baby's life as a constitutional defect.
Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a George W. Bush appointee, dissented.
He argued Tennessee has a legitimate interest in protecting parents' authority over their minor children.
Tennessee's ban on harboring or transporting minors for abortions was never challenged, and it still stands.
Rep. Aftyn Behn Dedicated the Sixth Circuit Ruling to Abortion Workers
The plaintiffs were Nashville Democrat state Representative Aftyn Behn and attorney Rachel Welty, who sits on the board of the abortion fund Abortion Care Tennessee.
Behn lost a December 2025 special congressional election to Republican Matt Van Epps.
She claimed Tennessee "cannot export its abortion ban across state lines."
Then she dedicated the win to "the courageous frontline abortion workers and organizers in the South."
Not to the parents of that girl in Pocatello.
Tennessee AG Skrmetti Demands Planned Parenthood's Mail-Order Abortion Pill Records
On September 3, Skrmetti sent Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi a demand for 16 sets of documents and nine sworn statements reaching back to February 2022.
He wants communications about people who got abortion pills by mail or through telemedicine, plus records on minors given puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones after July 1, 2023.
Abortion Care Tennessee – Welty's group – got a similar demand the same month.
Both organizations ran to chancery court asking a judge to block or narrow the demands.
Planned Parenthood chief Ashley Coffield accused Skrmetti of trying to "shut down Planned Parenthood health centers."
Planned Parenthood insists it has never provided telehealth abortions.
Then it should have no trouble handing over the paperwork.
Skrmetti's office didn't flinch, saying it "has the authority to request information when there may be a violation of state law that we enforce, and we routinely do so."
Idaho's Abortion Trafficking Win Shows Tennessee How to Protect Parental Rights
In December 2024, the Ninth Circuit struck Idaho's recruiting provision but upheld its ban on harboring and transporting minors for abortions behind their parents' backs.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador called it "a tremendous victory" and promised the state "will not stop protecting life in Idaho."
Tennessee's transport ban rests on the exact ground Idaho won.
Sutton's dissent hands Skrmetti a roadmap to the full Sixth Circuit or to the Supreme Court that already sided with him once.
"Before the Human Life Protection Act, more than 1,000 children were aborted in Tennessee every month," Tennessee Right to Life President Stacy Dunn said.
Tennessee now puts $20 million a year into its Strong Families program, which supports pregnancy centers helping moms choose life.
The abortion fund whose board member sued to protect recruiting minors is now fighting to keep its mail-order abortion records from the attorney general.
Tennessee parents deserve to know what these people are hiding.
Sources:
- Jane B. Stranch and Jeffrey S. Sutton, Welty v. Dunaway, No. 25-5738, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, September 24, 2026.
- Associated Press, "Idaho Mother-Son Duo Charged With Kidnapping After Transporting Minor to Oregon for Abortion," Fox News, November 1, 2023.
- Nancy Flanders, "Tennessee Advances Bill to Protect Minors From Abortion Trafficking," Live Action, February 21, 2024.
- Daniel Potter, "Abortion Backers Notch Court Win – and Point to Brawl With AG Over Documents," WPLN News, September 25, 2026.
- Anita Wadhwani, "Planned Parenthood Files Legal Challenge to Investigation, Document Demands by Tennessee AG," Tennessee Lookout, September 25, 2026.
- Idaho Office of Attorney General, "Attorney General Labrador Successfully Defends Idaho's Abortion Trafficking Laws at Ninth Circuit," December 2, 2024.
- Tennessee Right to Life, "Three Years of Human Life Protection Act Means Tennessee Has One of the Strongest Pro-Life Laws in the Nation," National Right to Life News, August 26, 2025.
