2026 Legislative Session in Review
“Have we gone too far?” Each year, Tennessee legislators seem to find new ways to make life harder for Tennesseans by introducing more hateful and dehumanizing bills. In a political climate where ICE family separation and abduction, war, and a never-ending stream of political scandals are standard news, Tennessee legislators prioritized targeting communities already facing escalating fascist attacks. But, advocates from all across Tennessee continued to boldly demand that legislators not bow down to extremist ideologies and corporate interests and instead pass legislation that promotes Tennesseans’ reproductive autonomy. From a bill that would have created an identifiable registry of trans patients to a bill making it harder for immigrants to access hospitals to locking up kids in the foster system, advocates worked tirelessly to mitigate harm, encourage opposition, and fight back. In this review, we detail some of those fights.
Let’s get into it:
12 Month Supply Covered by All TN Insurance
In February, we passed Public Chapter 595, which requires all insurers in the state to cover a 12 month supply of birth control at one time. In 2023, Healthy and Free TN started preparing legislation to expand access to birth control. In 2024, we passed a law that allows people on TennCare and CoverKids to access a 12 month supply of birth control at one time. In 2025, when the law went into effect, we worked to text nearly 50,000 Tennesseans about the benefit. We’re so excited about what this new law means for birth control access and coverage! The law officially goes into effect on July 1, 2027, but many insurers are already pre-complying. Find out more about 12 month supply for TennCare and CoverKids here.
HFTN Outgoing Executive Director Briana Perry and intern Abbie join the Ampersand Advocacy team to watch the House pass our 12 month supply bill!
Other Key Wins
This year, the legislature also passed versions of federal laws that are vulnerable to challenge including a state-level Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which prioritizes placing native kids with their family or tribe when they are removed from their homes, and a state-level Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires hospitals to stabilize pregnant Tennesseans before refusing or transferring them. While both are not as strong as the federal laws, their passage in Tennessee is encouraging.
Young, Gifted & Green worked with Senator London Lamar and Representative Jesse Chism to pass a bill that will require the Department of Health to share information on lead exposure, testing, and mitigation with pregnant Tennesseans on SNAP and WIC.
Advocates join HFTN Day on the Hill in March
Advocates defeated some of the most extreme anti-abortion measures we’ve seen in Tennessee. Representative Jody Barrett introduced a bill that would allow the state to prosecute and seek the death penalty for any person who had an abortion. Representative Gino Bulso, introduced legislation that would ban in vitro fertilization (IVF) and treat embryos as legal persons. Representative Michele Reneau and Senator Mark Pody introduced a bill to exclude artificial intelligence (AI) from the definition of “human,” while also expanding that definition to include an embryo. Advocates fought and won amendments to remove all personhood language or outright defeated these bills.
In other movements, advocates ensured an amendment on a bill that would have allowed private youth facilities to lock up kids in the foster system with no due process; and killed a bill that would further punish poor parents and parents experiencing domestic violence.
HFTN partnered with WeCareTN to host a Memphis Repro Justice Legislative Lounge in February. Attendees heard from a panel about upcoming bills
Key Losses
In response to the rise of self-managed abortion, legislators updated who can enforce consequences for mailing abortion pills in Tennessee. It remains to be seen what, if any, impact these laws will have due to the limitations of who can sue a pill provider and “shield” laws that protect providers in other states. Representative Chris Todd is so afraid of the word, “Palestine,” he passed a law requiring all government agencies to call the area, “Judea and Samaria.” Legislators poured additional funds into the failed school voucher program, while also defunding and ending the TennCare diaper benefit, a first-of-its-kind benefit that provided all kids eligible for TennCare with diapers from birth to 2 years old. Legislators also increased attacks on immigrant families, including a bill tracking immigrant families' use of local public benefits. In another law, the state will cap the amount of money bail funds can spend on bail and limit assistance to once per year.
Briana; HFTN Organizing Director, Cory Roroya; and Knoxville Black Maternal Health founders, Alexis Alsup and Femeika Elliot, pose at our Knoxville Repro Justice Legislative Lounge in February
What’s Next?
As Tennessee transitions out of the end of the 114th General Assembly, Healthy and Free TN is having some big transitions of our own. In December, we welcomed Cory Roroya as HFTN’s first Organizing Director. In March, we welcomed Judith Clerjeune as our new Executive Director. In May, Briana Perry will leave her role as Executive Director and join our Steering Committee. Over her nearly 14 years connected to the organization, Briana has generously shared her brilliance, forever changing the Tennessee reproductive justice policy landscape with her leadership.
While legislators may have been preoccupied with questions and doubts this year, Healthy and Free TN has always been clear: not only have we not gone far enough, but we need to go further - towards a future where reproductive justice and liberation is a reality for all Tennesseans. We enjoyed meeting supporters in Knoxville and Memphis at our Repro Justice Legislative Lounge events and welcoming folks to Nashville for our annual Day on the Hill in March. We’re excited to spend our summer visioning, strategizing, connecting, planning, and building towards that future. The future we’re building requires all of us, so please stay connected by following us on Instagram and/or signing up for our emails for more information about how to get involved.
Scroll down for our updated 2026 Repro Justice Legislative Watchlist
Nashville is finally thawing out and legislators are back at the Capitol pushing bills and agendas that threaten and strengthen our human rights! Every year, we publish a watchlist that focuses on the four key tenets of Reproductive Justice:
(1) the Right to Have a Child
(2) the Right to Not Have a Child
(3) the Right to Raise Children in Safe and Healthy Communities, and
(4) the Right to Bodily Autonomy.
We’ve pulled together a non-exhaustive list, and we encourage you to check out Disability Rights TN, Tennessee Equality Project, ACLU-TN, and more watchlists for even more specific bills.
As a reminder, a bill MUST pass on the House and Senate Floor with the exact same language to become law. Tennessee runs on a two year legislative session, meaning that bills that did not specifically fail last year can come back. You can review our 2025 Watchlist for more information. We try to update this page weekly. If you have any questions about these bills, please feel free to reach out to Nina at nina@healthyandfreetn.org.
HFTN’s Proactive Bills:
SB 589 / HB 169: 12 Month Supply for All: Allows all Tennesseans to receive a 12 month supply of birth control at one time, building on the success of our previous win in 2024: extended supply for folks on TennCare.
Sponsors: Senator Raumesh Akbari and Representative Esther Helton-Haynes
Position: Support - Leading
Latest Action: PASSED!
SB 1039 / HB 1102: Requires healthcare facilities to get informed consent before screening or testing pregnant and postpartum patients and their newborns for drugs and alcohol
Sponsors: Senator Janice Bowling and Representative Chris Hurt
Position: Support - Leading
Latest Action: Paused for this year, but hopefully coming back next year!
SB 463 / HB 595: Freedom to Grow Our Tennessee Families Act: Requires both private and public health insurance plans to cover fertility care and preservation services, updates the definitions of fertility care and infertility patient, and adjusts the requirements to receive transitional childcare assistance when exiting public benefits programs.
Sponsors: Senator Richard Briggs and Representative Caleb Hemmer
Position: Support - Leading
Latest Action: Paused for this year, but hopefully coming back next year!
Priority Defensive (Bad) Bills:
SB 1703 / HB 1699: Allows the state to treat poverty as neglect
Sponsors: Senator Adam Lowe; Representative Kevin Raper
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: WITHDRAWN (defeated for this year!)
SB 2324 / HB 2429: Among other things, allows courts to require parents to pay court costs and fees to the winning party (not DCS) if they lose in child visitation, custody, or dependency and neglect proceedings
Sponsors: Senator Ferrell Haile; Representative Andrew Farmer
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Passed
SB 2538 / HB 2128: Among other things, requires even more hurdles to get custody of children if a parent has a record of prior CPS investigations or domestic violence. This type of bill is particularly concerning because of the well-documented experiences of survivors of domestic violence who are criminalized or charged with domestic violence for defending themselves or their children. Furthermore, now more than ever, TN laws support DCS and DAs in charging or alleging child abuse or domestic violence against a survivor-parent merely for being in an abusive relationship, even if the children are not harmed.
Similar bill: SB 2539 / HB 2127 (Amended to do very little): Passed
Sponsors: Senator Tom Hatcher; Representative Rebecca Alexander
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Taken Off Notice (dead for the year!)
The Right to Have a Child
SB 485 / HB 1904: Creates the Tennessee Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which incorporates the federal law into our state law and is a small step toward recognizing tribal sovereignty (that Native tribes are their own nations) especially in the child custody and welfare proceedings
Sponsors: Senator Janice Bowling; Representative Bryan Terry
Position: Support
Latest Action: Passed
SB 1565 / HB 1534: Provides additional support for Tennesseans who have had a stillbirth
Sponsors: Senator London Lamar; Representative Johnny Shaw
Position: Support
Latest Action: Taken off notice for the year
SB 1681 / HB 1943: Requires hospitals to stabilize pregnant people before discharging them modeling federal legislation that has recently been undermined by the Trump Administration
Sponsors: Senator London Lamar; Representative Harold Love
Position: Support
Latest Action: Passed with amendment that clarifies this law does not authorize or require emergency abortion care outside of what is already allowable under TN criminal law.
SB 1770 / HB 2584: Does not allow a divorce proceeding to stop just because one party is pregnant if some conditions are met
Sponsors: Senator London Lamar; Representative Jesse Chism
Position: Support - pregnancy should not be the sole reason to delay divorce proceedings, and we’re a little concerned that these conditions will be tough to resolve before the end of a pregnancy.
Latest Action: Failed in Senate Judiciary Committee
SB 1701 / HB 2053: Requires the Department of Health to gather and publish information on uterine fibroids
Sponsor: Senator Raumesh Akbari
Position: Support
Latest Action: Paused for this year
SB 1655 / HB 1647: Makes kratom an illegal substance and mandates specific testing for Kratom when physicians suspect substance exposure in newborns
Sponsors: Senator Todd Gardenhire; Representative Helton-Haynes
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Introduced
SB 1755 / HB 1783: Allows Court Appointed Special Advocates to have access to any organizational records they deem important and relevant to adoption proceedings
Sponsors: Senator Ferrell Haile; Representative Ed Butler
Position: Oppose - Nonprofit volunteers should not have the power to subpoena confidential records from places like domestic violence shelters, syringe exchange programs, community defense organizations and more.
Latest Action: Introduced
SB 1605 / HB 2083: Expands zero to three courts, alternative courts for child welfare cases that can trap folks with legal consequences instead of just providing resources
Sponsors: Senator Ferrell Haile; Representative Mary Littleton
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Passed
SB 1470 / HB 1879: Limits liability of DCS contractors, closing some of the only avenues for accountability for children harmed by DCS contractors.
Sponsors: Senator Page Walley; Representative Clark Boyd
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Withdrawn. That means this bill cannot move forward in this form this year!
SB 1723 / HB 1528: Allows lawsuits for “wrongful death” of an embryo. As written, this bill would likely end IVF in Tennessee (similar to ruling in Alabama that forced clinics to close). As amended, this bill only makes a few changes to Tennessee’s wrongful death statute - the person = embryo language was removed.
Sponsors: Senator Janice Bowling; Representative Gino Bulso
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Failed
SB 1893 / HB 1715: Allows breastfeeding parent to be excused from jury duty
Sponsors: Senator Janice Bowling; Representative Michael Hale
Position: Support
Latest Action: Passed
SB 1848 / HB 1984: Among other things, allows prescribers of medication used to treat opioid use who are not physicians to prescribe for breastfeeding people.
Sponsors: Senator Becky Massey; Representative Timothy Hill
Position: Support - we wish this type of care was accessible to more folks, but this is a step in the right direction
Latest Action: Passed
SB 1684 / HB 1457: Allows someone with a high risk pregnancy, as verified by their doctor, to receive a disabled driver sign (can park in accessible spots)
Sponsors: Senator Bill Powers; Representative Gino Bulso
Position: Neutral - There is nothing in current law that prohibits a pregnant person from getting an accessible parking placard if needed.
Latest Action: Passed
SB 2014 / HB 1947: As introduced, this bill could require jails to pregnancy test people as they come into custody and limits the liability of the jails and prisons in the state relative to their care of pregnant people.
Sponsors: Senator London Lamar; Representative Harold Love
Position: Update! The bill has been amended to remove the concerning provision.
Latest Action: Failed in Senate Health and Welfare Committee
The Right to Not Have a Child
SB 419 / HB 5: Some people who mail abortion pills into the state could be liable for $5 million lawsuit
Sponsors: Senator Joey Hensley; Representative Gino Bulso
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Paused for the year. The conference committee amendment did not get a vote in both houses before the end of session.
SB 837 / HB 849: Creates a definition of person that includes an embryo. While this bill specifically is focused on AI, the definitions section would have wide reaching implications on fertility care, pregnancy care, and how pregnancy losses are treated.
Sponsors: Senator Mark Pody; Representative Michele Reneau
Position: Oppose - Update! This bill may be amended to exclude fetal personhood language!
Latest Action: Passed
SB 1745 / HB 1472: Prohibits making arguments in court that suggest that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender and sexual identity and expression as well as whether someone has had an abortion. While Tennessee law does not currently protect people based on these characteristics / decisions, it would be harmful to prevent advocates from making these arguments in court.
Sponsors: Senator Janice Bowling; Representative Gino Bulso
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Stopped for the year
SB 2482 / HB 2321: Caption bill: We thought this bill would be something else, but the amendment filed would allow the death penalty for rape, commercial sexual exploitation, and human labor and sexual trafficking.
Sponsors: Senator Janice Bowling; Representative Monty Fritts
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Stopped for the year
The Right to Raise Families in Safe and Healthy Communities
SB 1915 / HB 1710: Requires local governments and health departments verify citizenship status before providing any public benefits, even those administered by the locality. Amended to only require reporting on immigrant families’ use of services
Sponsors: Senator Ed Jackson; Representative Dennis Powers
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Passed
Related: SB 2108 / HB 1711: requires reporting of use of services by non-citizens [Taken off notice in the House, but may come back as budget talks continue]
SB 1699 / HB 1482: Safe zones from immigration enforcement
Sponsors: Senator Raumesh Akbari; Representative Gabby Salinas
Position: Support
Latest Action: Failed
SB 1708 / HB 1450: Limits amount and number of times bail funds can post bail or bond
Sponsors: Senator Brent Taylor; Representative Charlie Baum
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Passed
SB 1818 / HB 1746: Prohibits sale of products with PFAs (dangerous forever chemicals that harm repro and overall health) without labels
Sponsors: Senator Heidi Campbell; Representative Bob Freeman
Position: Support
Latest Action: Introduced
SB 1657 / HB 1724: Allow localities to impose fines and fees for dumping toxic sludge
Sponsors: Senator Todd Gardenhire; Representative Ron Travis
Position: Neutral - The legislators brought this bill to allow a city in their district to curb wastewater pollution - but it doesn’t go far enough to protect folks throughout the state
Latest Action: Introduced
SB 1663 / HB 1446: Prohibits using the term “Palestine” to refer to Palestine
Sponsors: Senator Paul Rose; Representative Chris Todd
Position: Oppose
Latest Action: Passed
The Right to Bodily Autonomy
SB 1664 / HB 1665: Prohibits healthcare providers from asking questions about gender to a child unless parents are present and sign informed consent and related directly to the diagnosis or treatment of a specific medical condition
Sponsors: Senator Paul Rose; Representative Aaron Maberry
Position: Oppose - Amended significantly but still not good
Latest Action: Passed
SB 1989 / HB 2082: Explicitly states that refusing to acknowledge your child’s gender/consenting to conversion therapy is not child abuse and cannot be weighed against a parent in “best interest of the child” determinations.
Sponsors: Senator Paul Rose; Representative Mary Littleton
Position: Oppose - while we wholeheartedly support dismantling the so-called child welfare system, we have real concerns about the safety and wellbeing of queer and trans kids in our state. We see this bill as part of a larger strategy to attack the bodily autonomy of queer and trans folks.
Latest Action: Passed