A bill filed in the state legislature would prohibit an abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected and would require fetal heartbeat testing before an abortion, a move Planned Parenthood said that would “make safe abortions illegal in Tennessee.” 
Van Huss
The bill was filed last week by Rep. Micah Van Huss (R- Jonesborough). The bill has 24 co-sponsors in the House. However, no companion bill has yet been filed in the Senate.
Van Huss filed similar legislation before, according to Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi and Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood. The groups said in a statement Wednesday that the legislation filed previously “was not supported from Tennessee Right to Life and the state attorney general due to constitutional concerns.” They called it “extreme legislation.”
“North Dakota and Arkansas both passed similar abortion bans and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending their laws in court, only to have the laws struck down or permanently blocked as unconstitutional,” the groups said.