An anti-abortion bill in Tennessee that would allow women who obtain abortions to be prosecuted with homicide has failed in a House subcommittee. According to WZTV, the proposed legislation sought to “remove current legal protections for pregnant women and treat harm done to an unborn child the same as harm done to a ‘person born alive.'” Under the bill, if enacted, women who terminated pregnancies could have faced life in prison or possibly the death penalty. Bill that would have punished abortion like murder in TN fails in House subcommittee https://t.co/jWu5AEL2w9 — WKRN News 2 (@WKRN) March 10, 2026 WZTV explained further: The bill was assigned to the House Population Health Subcommittee, but no member made a motion to hear it on March 10, effectively killing the legislation before it could advance. The proposal sparked controversy because it would have applied Tennessee’s homicide laws directly to abortion, a move that critics said would have criminalized women for a medical procedure and imposed the harshest criminal penalties. Tennessee currently bans the majority of abortion procedures except for a limited number of exceptions, including medical emergencies to save the mother’s life or prevent major, permanent bodily harm. “Watch the moment House Bill 570, which would have abolished abortion in Tennessee, failed because zero Republicans on the Tennessee House Population Health Subcommittee had the courage to motion for the effort to be heard,” the Foundation to Abolish Abortion wrote. Watch the moment House Bill 570, which would have abolished abortion in Tennessee, failed because zero Republicans on the Tennessee House Population Health Subcommittee had the courage to motion for the effort to be heard. pic.twitter.com/uZoOBhXuzT — Foundation to Abolish Abortion (@AbolitionistFAA) March 10, 2026 Tennessee Lookout has more: An amendment to House Bill 570, sponsored by Republican Rep. Jody Barrett of Dickson, would have treated an abortion the same as criminal homicide, penalizing women who have abortions, including those who go out of state for treatment of dangerous pregnancies. Barrett’s bill would provide the same “equal protection” for fetuses as for people. Barrett, who claimed the outcome didn’t match Tennessee Republicans’ guiding principles, said afterward the “right to life is fundamental and … cannot be infringed.” “Nobody should have legal immunity to commit murder against any human in this state,” he said. Groups such as End Abortion Now and the Foundation to Abolish Abortion that supported Barrett’s bill blasted the Republican supermajority legislature for claiming to be “pro-life” but refusing to support the legislation. They expect to revive the bill in 2027. Knoxville resident Breanne Houston said in a press conference afterward her position on abortion changed after she had the procedure more than a decade ago. “Our laws already recognize that every human being deserves equal protection under the law,” Houston said. “Right now the only class of human beings excluded from that protection are those that happen to be located inside the womb.” Tennessee enacted one of the strictest abortion laws in the nation in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal protections for abortion in Roe v. Wade. But Barrett contends that Tennessee doesn’t have a complete ban on the procedure because state law prohibits only the practice of abortion by medical professionals, not abortions performed out of state or by medication delivered through the mail.