Ms.: “Late last month, Nashville Democratic Rep. Aftyn Behn and abortion rights attorney and activist Rachel Welty brought a lawsuit in federal district court challenging the trafficking law on constitutional grounds and asking to have it permanently enjoined.
At the heart of their case, is their argument that the law “criminalizes pure speech based on the content and viewpoint a speaker stresses” regarding access to legal abortion care for teens.
On a more granular level, they zero in on the problematic nature of the “recruitment” prohibition, which they argue “appears to criminalize advocating for and facilitating access to legal abortion care, including abortion care provided out-of-state in compliance with the laws of sovereign jurisdictions.”
As a result, they fear that they will be prosecuted if they continue their advocacy work—a fear that is heightened by the simultaneous threat of also being sued for monetary damages for the ‘wrongful’ death of the fetus—in contravention of their right to free speech. They further argue that this chilling effect on their speech right is “especially destructive” for Rep. Behn because it “interferes with her role and duty as an elected official and simultaneously violates her constituents’ right to hear and receive information from her.””