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Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
LIST: New laws that take effect July 1, 2025
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tuesday, July 1, a number of laws passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in recent years take full effect. From allowing online boating license exams to increasing the penalties for drunk driving to combatting AI-generated deepfakes, these are some of the laws set to be fully enforced as of July 1. House Bill 995 by State Rep. Iris Rudder (R-Winchester) extends the immunity provisions for persons seeking medical care for themselves or others in the event of a suspected alcohol overdose. Tennessee already has a Good Samaritan provision for those experiencing a suspected drug overdose who seek medical attention. This law allows for alcohol-related misdemeanors like public intoxication and those drinking under the age of 21 to be covered under the Good Samaritan provision. The law was inspired by a constituent of Rudder's who lost her 18-year-old brother to an alcohol overdose at a party. According to House Republicans, the teen's friends were afraid they would get in legal trouble if they called for help for him since they were under the legal drinking age. House Bill 530 by State Rep. Rick Eldridge (R-Morristown) allows Tennessee citizens to take their boating safety exam online by eliminating the current monitoring requirement. Previously, citizens were required to take the exam in-person under the supervision of a proctor. Part of the new law allows for online testing access for those in rural areas, and also provides working individuals a 'flexible solution' if they work during standard business hours, according to a spokesman for the House Republican caucus. House Bill 141 by Rep. Michael Hale (R-Smithville) aims to protect consumers from excessive charges when canceling service contracts for cable, internet or phone plans. The bill prohibits service providers from billing customers for an extra billing cycle if the contract is canceled during the first half of the cycle. Should a customer cancel their plan in the second half of the billing cycle, providers would be able to charge for the remaining days and one additional billing term. | READ MORE | Companies that fail to comply would be subject to penalties from the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act of 1977. This bill by Rep. Rusty Grills (R-Newbern) establishes new rules for 'alternative proteins' sold in Tennessee. Passed in 2024, the law prohibits any 'cell-cultured protein or lab-grown meat' from being marketed as 'meat' or 'meat food products' in the state. Though not yet available in Tennessee, state lawmakers followed the path of other states in passing strict rules for the potential protein, including Florida and Alabama. Only two companies in the U.S. are currently authorized to produce lab-grown chicken. Two laws passed by state Republicans, House Bill 72 and 751, aim to protect children from exposure to substances like fentanyl or hemp-derived products Tennessee 'PEACE' Act signed by Gov. Bill Lee House Bill 72, by Rep. Dan Howell (R-Cleveland), establishes a minimum sentence of 48 consecutive hours in a county jail or workhouse and a fine of at least $500 for people convicted of selling or distributing products like THC gummies to people under the age of 21. According to East Tennessee Children's Hospital, more than 250 children were treated for 'cannabis poisoning' between July 2023 and June 2024. House Bill 751 by Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) enhances already established penalties for exposing a child to fentanyl. Specifically, it creates a Class E felony for anyone who does so, and elevates the crime to a Class B felony if the child is under 8 years old. According to House Republicans, Poison centers in the U.S. managed 539 cases of children under 6 being exposed to fentanyl in 2023. House Bill 1050 by Rep. Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis) holds businesses accountable if they enable or ignore criminal activity on their premises. The criminal activity could be 'ongoing violence, drug sales, and other public safety hazards,' per the law. The law also offers relief for neighborhoods plagued by problem establishments by 'streamlining the nuisance business closure statutes' and giving residents and other businesses in the same ZIP code the ability to receive statutory damages. Hamilton County Rep. Greg Martin passed House Bill 302, which makes it a Class C misdemeanor to park, stop, or leave a vehicle in a way that impedes traffic. The penalty increases to a Class B misdemeanor if the action contributes to an accident. 📧 Have breaking news come to you: → State Rep. Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) attempted to make the act of blocking a highway during a protest a felony in February of 2024, but the measure failed due to lack of funding. Rogersville Republican Rep. Gary Hicks passed House Bill 482, which adds prostate, breast and pancreatic cancers to the list of diseases covered by the Barry Brady Act of 2019. That law outlined specific cancers presumed to have been caused by employment as a firefighter and required them covered under workers compensation. Also covered by the Act are non-Hodgkin lymphoma and colon, skin and multiple myeloma cancers. Passed by Memphis State Rep. Karen Camper, House Bill 537 codifies the 'Law Enforcement's Safer Tennessee Electronic Registration Act.' The law clarifies that law enforcement is required to accept a digital copy of vehicle registration as a valid proof of insurance. Tennessee also allows for digital copies of proof of insurance. Tennessee ranked 3rd most dangerous state for teen drivers House Bill 1025 by Rep. Lowell Russell (R-Vonore) suspends a juvenile's driving privileges for one year if they are adjudicated delinquent for harassment, bullying, or cyberbullying. The legislation expands on a previous law Russell promoted that formally defines bullying, cyberbullying, and harassment in state law. The law also contains an option for first-time offenders to receive a restricted license for use only to drive to school, work and church. House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) successfully passed House Bill 1299, which creates a new legal framework for victims of AI deepfakes to take legal action and receive damages. The law creates a Class E felony offense to 'disclose or threaten to disclose intimate digital depictions with the intent to harass, annoy, alarm or cause substantial harm to the finances or reputation of the depicted individual.' Former Nashville meteorologist Bree Smith championed the effort after she was victimized by such a deepfake. Introduced by Nashville Rep. Bob Freeman, the law expands the offense of unlawful photography to include any unauthorized photograph that a defendant knows would include the 'unclothed intimate area' of a victim or the victim engaged in sexual activity. The law also allows victims to receive orders of protection if they have been subject to, threatened with, or placed in fear of unlawful photography. The law was inspired by dozens of Nashville women who were victimized by a man who had a hidden camera disguised as an alarm clock in his bedroom. The women all dated Matthew Vollmer and later discovered he had taken photos and videos of their sexual encounters without their knowledge. Many of the women were unable to press charges against him due to previous statutes of limitations, prompting lawmakers to act. ⏩ Championed by Lamberth, the PEACE Act makes particular changes to current state law to address 'hate littering' and trespassing, as well as police procedure, obstruction and road safety. The full title is the Protecting Everyone Against Crime and Extremism and it stems from the Neo-Nazi marches in downtown Nashville in 2024, as well as the subsequent targeting of a synagogue by anti-Semitic groups. The bill makes it illegal to leave a hate-filled flyer in neighborhoods, hang banners from overpasses and bridges, ride in the back of a box truck, refuse to give one's name or give the wrong name to police, and getting within 25 feet of an officer after being asked to back up. Nashville State Rep. Caleb Hemmer passed House Bill 24, which increases the penalties for those convicted of certain animal-related crimes. Specifically, the law makes removing a wild animal, wild fowl, or fish while trespassing on land a Class B misdemeanor rather than a Class C misdemeanor. The law also increases various fines under $500 to 'not more than $500.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Tennessee lawmakers are tackling IVF, contraception access: Here's the latest on the bills
After voting down bill last year to protect access to fertility care and contraceptives amid national tension around in-vitro fertilization, GOP-led legislation in Tennessee to do just that moved forward with bipartisan support Tuesday. Legal implications of Tennessee's abortion ban on continued access to contraception and IVF care arose following a controversial Alabama Supreme Court ruling last year that offered frozen embryos created through in-vitro fertilization the same rights as fully-developed children. Activists on both sides of the issue have expressed interest in tightening or loosening restrictions on IVF and contraceptive access. Now, lawmakers are moving to explicitly clarify that abortion laws do not apply to contraception and IVF. The Fertility Treatment and Contraceptive Protection Act passed a first House committee on Tuesday, and is set to be heard in the Senate on Wednesday. It clarifies that nothing in state law prohibits access to fertility treatments or contraception, and individuals have a right to engage in both. Republicans voted down similar legislation seeking to codify access to contraception last year, saying at the time it was unnecessary to codify protections because contraceptives are already legal in Tennessee. While there are several Democratic-led bills this year seeking to protect access to fertility treatments and contraception care, the only proposal moving forward in the House is sponsored by Republican women: Rep. Iris Rudder, R-Winchester, and Sen. Becky Massey, R-Knoxville. Separately, another Republican-led measure seeking to further regulate fertility care in Tennessee was delayed until next week. Sponsor Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, said his legislation is aimed at preventing situations that led to the Alabama court ruling. 'There is no desire in my heart or in this legislation to prohibit IVF,' Williams said Tuesday. 'My concern is that without state guidance and licensure what happened in Alabama might happen in Tennessee where the courts decide and interpret statutes based on courts and not based on their legislative bodies.' House Bill 945 would propose a model agreement for patients and providers, suggesting – though not requiring – bans on certain genetic testing. Williams said he feels it's inappropriate to do 'the vast majority of genetic testing,' and he wants the legislature to opine on what types of genetic testing are appropriate. The model agreement would also suggest – but also not require – limits on the number of embryos that could be frozen at one time based on the number of children desired by the couple. 'If we were to say that we think we want two children, then the model agreement opines that at no one time could my wife and I have eight embryos frozen in storage at a time,' Williams said. But IVF physicians don't feel that limitation is wise, said Dr. George Hill, medical director of the Nashville Fertility Center. 'Human reproduction is very inefficient to begin with,' Hill said. 'Limiting patients on the number of eggs that you inseminate really, really hurts you at the end, when you're trying to get that normal embryo that's going to give them the best chance for a successful pregnancy. Out of those 20 eggs, women wind up with about two or three normal embryos.' The bill would also create a state licensure and inspection process for cryogenic storage facilities housing frozen embryos created through IVF, and a state licensure process for in-vitro fertilization services based on federal guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rep. Sabi 'Doc' Kumar, R-Springfield, questioned the fine line the state would need to draw on embryo disposal and storage regulation. In 2022, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti issued an opinion saying disposing of unused IVF embryos does not constitute a criminal abortion under state law because the embryo is not inside a woman's body at the time of disposal. 'It's a difficult dilemma,' Kumar said. 'We have claims of personhood for these embryos as well as legal concerns that these are persons and we can't really destroy them. Of course, they can be implanted in another person. They can be donated… On the one hand, legal institutions are saying that these are persons. On the other, we are saying that if we destroy them, that's not abortion.' A separate Democratic-led bill seeking similar protections was delayed by the chair to next week. More than two years have passed since Tennessee's abortion ban went into effect following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. Tennessee law bans abortion from the moment of fertilization onward, except in two specific circumstances of medical complication. There is no exception for rape or incest. Lawmakers gave bipartisan first approval to a measure that could offer physicians some limited legal protection in medical decisionmaking around terminating pregnancies that could cause 'serious and substantial irreversible impairment' to the mother. As the law is currently written, physicians who perform an abortion on a woman in a medical emergency can be charged with a Class C felony and forced to go to court to defend their medical decisionmaking, though the law provides an affirmative defense if the doctor can prove the procedure was medically necessary. Last year, a panel of judges ruled physicians cannot be punished for providing abortions in life-threatening emergency scenarios. House Bill 990 would list certain conditions that could cause 'serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of major bodily function,' including: pre-viable, pre-term, premature rupture of membranes, inevitable abortion, severe preeclampsia, mirror syndrome associated with fetal hydrops, or infection that can result in uterine rupture or loss of fertility. 'These aren't new exceptions, as the Human Life Protection Act should cover these conditions, however, we want to provide more clarity,' bill sponsor Rep. Bryan Terry, R-Murfreesboro, said. 'Right now since the Human Life Protection Act doesn't have this clarity in there… that's one thing [doctors] have to think about before they take that step.' House Minority Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said the vagueness in current law has put physicians in an impossible situation. 'The law ... has created a lot of issues with medical care providers being forced to make legal judgments rather than medical judgments,' Clemmons said. Separately, a bill by Rep. Gabby Salinas, D-Memphis, seeking to create exceptions for pregnancies by rape and incest was taken off notice by the committee chair. Republicans voted down an aspirational bill that sought to restore full access to abortion, protect health care providers from prosecution and ensure patients have access to contraception and fertility care. The Reproductive Freedom Act would serve as 'a guiding vision of what we are fighting for," sponsor Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, said. 'This bill is about more than abortion,' Behn said. 'It's about bodily autonomy, economic freedom, and the right to make health care decisions without politicians standing in the way.' It failed in a party line vote of 2 to 6. Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at vjones@ This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee bill to protect IVF, contraception access moves forward
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmaker wants to make June 2025 ‘Nuclear Family Month' in Tennessee
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Franklin County Republican lawmaker hopes to designate this June as 'Nuclear Family Month' in the Volunteer State. Rep. Iris Rudder (R-Winchester) has filed a joint resolution in the Tennessee General Assembly that would designate June 2025 as Nuclear Family Month. 'Whereas, the nuclear family, consisting of one husband, one wide, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children, is God's design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world,' the resolution begins. The resolution also calls the nuclear family the 'basic building block of Tennessee's society throughout her formative years' and has 'built the United States of America and created prosperity within our nation.' The resolution also denounces the 'humanistic, globalist ideologies' of the World Health Organization, the United Nations and 'like-minded organizations that fight for population control through the means of promoting sterilization and abortion practices,' stating the nuclear family is 'under attack' and it is the state's responsibility to 'uplift, protect, and support values that help Tennessee prosper.' TN Congressman Andy Ogles files 'PEDO' Act to prevent destruction of Epstein files June is widely celebrated as Pride month for members of the LGBTQ+ community. The month is celebrated in June because the Stonewall Inn riots took place in late June 1969 The Stonewall Inn was a popular gay club in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood and protests started after police conducted a raid on the bar. The events are considered the catalyst of the gay liberation movement in the U.S. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
