Tennessee lawmakers to introduce changes affecting abortion, gun control, more

JACKSON, Tenn. — From increasing crime penalties to protecting musicians, changes are on the way in the state of Tennessee.

With the state of Tennessee banning abortion in August of 2022, they have now established a law, Senate Bill 1971, to prohibit the transportation of a minor across the state line to receive an abortion.

This is committing an offense of abortion trafficking, facing up to a year or more of imprisonment.

Another bill, Senate Bill 2576, now requires law enforcement to report to federal immigration authorities. They will need to cooperate with those authorities in the identification, apprehension, detention, or removal of individuals not lawfully present in the us.

“They can get away with anything and we have no idea who they are. I don’t like to big brother and look over everybody’s shoulder but when we do have a crime we need to investigate we tools to do so and when somebody enters and they have no accountability it’s just impossible to track and keep up with,” said Jason Oliver, chief of the Medina Police Department.

More forthcoming bills, like House Bill 1600, include prohibiting juveniles convicted of crimes from owning a gun until they’re twenty-five contingent on the specific crime they commit.

“Some kids are good and some are bad. Everybody needs a second chance and I get that but sometime we get to see it a little earlier than most,” said Oliver.

There’s also a new law, Senate Bill 1834, allowing the state to seek the death penalty for those convicted of aggravated rape of a child. This could land the offender up to 25 years of imprisonment. The law would not apply to individuals with intellectual disabilities convicted of the same crime.

“Some of these bills actually, you know, they get kicked around for years even. There’s some stuff that we work on and try to get it pushed through and a lot of time it’s difficult,” said Oliver.

Other new laws include recognizing 10 official state books and acquiring the Elvis Act giving vocal protection to music artists name, image, and likeness as the first state to provide this protection.

For a list of several other laws going into effect, click here.

For more Tennessee news, click here.