How Did Gov. Lee Get the Language of the Artificial Reproduction Bill So Wrong?
May 6, 2025 by FACT
On April 24th, Governor Lee signed a well-intended but nonetheless dangerous bill declaring (among other things) that an “individual” in Tennessee has “a right to engage in activities associated with fertility treatment,” which not only includes in vitro fertilization (IVF), but also “technologies, or services relating to fertility”—an open-ended category that authorizes individual sale and purchase of donor sperm and eggs and their use to create and freeze or discard embryonic human beings.
The scriptures teach that “children are a gift from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Social science tells us children most prosper when raised by their mother and father. Even President Trump’s recent IVF Executive Order says, “our public policy must make it easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children,” and then says “[t]his order is not intended to, and does not, create any right…” Yet the bill Governor Lee signed seems to have lost all moorings to these principles, giving not a husband-and-wife couple, not even a woman, but an “individual” a statutory “right” to access technologies and services to make children. Where oh where might this lead? Do “individuals” have a right to make a child for themselves? Do technicians have a “right” to make those children? Tennessee now answers “yes” to both of those questions and appears to assign legal immunity to such conduct. As we and many others in the pro-life, pro-child, and pro-family community called on the Governor to veto this anti-family-unit bill, we now call on him to immediately ask the legislature to further review the potentially enormous consequences of their actions and correct this policy error in the new legislative term this coming January.
Let’s look a bit deeper into this travesty for Tennessee. The "Fertility Treatment and Contraceptive Protection Act" (SB 449) contains language that gives the right to whomever, to do whatever they want! Whether it would allow Tennessee to even enforce safety measures on the largely unregulated reproductive technology industry is in doubt under the terms of this statute. Indeed, it is the reproductive technology industry that this law puts in the driver’s seat.
Additionally, while claiming to protect an individual’s alleged “right” to IVF and to the purchase of donor gametes, this law denies the actual rights of embryonic babies—who are just as entitled to life and a relationship with their mother and father as every other human being. The statute renounces Tennessee’s interest in protecting both life and the natural family. Instead, this new law makes children purchasable items for individuals (not husbands and wives) to access through third-party reproduction, with all the eugenic and life-destroying industry norms that go along with it.
As to the statute’s disregard for innocent embryonic life, Representative Chris Todd last week sent a letter to Governor Lee, co-signed by a number of other members of the House. The letter asked the governor to exercise his constitutional authority to veto the legislation:
“At face value and with due deference to the sponsor's honorable intent, signing this bill into law would appear to be an act of compassion, particularly for those couples who are facing childlessness,” the letter reads. “We would further agree that there is no question that the children who were born as a result of IVF are blessings from God. However, the support of this bill by the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and all 24 House Democrats should give you pause to consider whether it, well-intended or not, is a Trojan horse that could potentially undermine Tennessee's strong and righteous stance on the protection of innocent human life.”
The letter notes two significant issues with IVF that many legislators may have failed to consider before voting in favor of SB 449:
1. An average of 5-20 embryos are created in each IVF cycle, and many women undergo multiple cycles before becoming pregnant. This means that, inevitably, many of those embryos are created only to be destroyed. Normally, couples undergo IVF with the goal of having only one or two children. This means that embryos, reported now to be in the millions in the U.S., are indefinitely frozen or destroyed with no thought to their inherent value as pre-born human beings. In fact, couples who want to create only the embryos they intend to use are often denied. This is a rampant issue within the IVF industry that this bill not only fails to address, but further enables.
2. The second issue is the fetal “reduction” procedure many women are required to undergo when IVF results in too many pregnancies at once, which can pose a health risk. In these cases, the mothers undergo surgery to remove some of the babies to decrease the risk for the woman and the remaining babies. Make no mistake: this is selective abortion. For Tennessee to remain a strong pro-life state, the statute’s provisions must change.
“[SB 449] creates a statutory right [for] anyone to create and destroy human embryos without qualification, limitation, or restriction,” Rep. Gino Bulso noted in a floor speech. “Why is that a problem? That’s a problem because it does not treat a human embryo as a person or as a child, which our law does in many places. Our law actually defines a human embryo as a person in three separate parts of our code.”
Bulso went on to explain that Tennessee’s code defines an “unborn child” to be a child from fertilization (conception) to birth. “Those definitions are scientifically accurate,” he said, noting that at the moment of conception, a new human being is brought into existence with a unique genetic code.
Bulso proposed an amendment that would have enabled Tennessee to enforce its “compelling interest in the protection of the life of an unborn child … at every stage from fertilization until birth.” Unfortunately, that amendment did not make it to the finish line.
Even the Senate Majority Leader, who voted for this bill, is now in agreement that it has “slippery slope” language with “ambiguity” in it, stating just 10 days ago that “I think we will be back next year to take another stab at it.” We plan to strongly advocate for this.
There are several other concerns with this law beyond those stated above, and FACT will be pressing these concerns with our elected officials. FACT’s board was unanimous in calling on Governor Lee to veto this bill. We now call for him to use his influence to urge legislators to correct this law that has created multiple and dangerous new “rights” in Tennessee.
The scriptures teach that “children are a gift from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Social science tells us children most prosper when raised by their mother and father. Even President Trump’s recent IVF Executive Order says, “our public policy must make it easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children,” and then says “[t]his order is not intended to, and does not, create any right…” Yet the bill Governor Lee signed seems to have lost all moorings to these principles, giving not a husband-and-wife couple, not even a woman, but an “individual” a statutory “right” to access technologies and services to make children. Where oh where might this lead? Do “individuals” have a right to make a child for themselves? Do technicians have a “right” to make those children? Tennessee now answers “yes” to both of those questions and appears to assign legal immunity to such conduct. As we and many others in the pro-life, pro-child, and pro-family community called on the Governor to veto this anti-family-unit bill, we now call on him to immediately ask the legislature to further review the potentially enormous consequences of their actions and correct this policy error in the new legislative term this coming January.
Let’s look a bit deeper into this travesty for Tennessee. The "Fertility Treatment and Contraceptive Protection Act" (SB 449) contains language that gives the right to whomever, to do whatever they want! Whether it would allow Tennessee to even enforce safety measures on the largely unregulated reproductive technology industry is in doubt under the terms of this statute. Indeed, it is the reproductive technology industry that this law puts in the driver’s seat.
Additionally, while claiming to protect an individual’s alleged “right” to IVF and to the purchase of donor gametes, this law denies the actual rights of embryonic babies—who are just as entitled to life and a relationship with their mother and father as every other human being. The statute renounces Tennessee’s interest in protecting both life and the natural family. Instead, this new law makes children purchasable items for individuals (not husbands and wives) to access through third-party reproduction, with all the eugenic and life-destroying industry norms that go along with it.
As to the statute’s disregard for innocent embryonic life, Representative Chris Todd last week sent a letter to Governor Lee, co-signed by a number of other members of the House. The letter asked the governor to exercise his constitutional authority to veto the legislation:
“At face value and with due deference to the sponsor's honorable intent, signing this bill into law would appear to be an act of compassion, particularly for those couples who are facing childlessness,” the letter reads. “We would further agree that there is no question that the children who were born as a result of IVF are blessings from God. However, the support of this bill by the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and all 24 House Democrats should give you pause to consider whether it, well-intended or not, is a Trojan horse that could potentially undermine Tennessee's strong and righteous stance on the protection of innocent human life.”
The letter notes two significant issues with IVF that many legislators may have failed to consider before voting in favor of SB 449:
1. An average of 5-20 embryos are created in each IVF cycle, and many women undergo multiple cycles before becoming pregnant. This means that, inevitably, many of those embryos are created only to be destroyed. Normally, couples undergo IVF with the goal of having only one or two children. This means that embryos, reported now to be in the millions in the U.S., are indefinitely frozen or destroyed with no thought to their inherent value as pre-born human beings. In fact, couples who want to create only the embryos they intend to use are often denied. This is a rampant issue within the IVF industry that this bill not only fails to address, but further enables.
2. The second issue is the fetal “reduction” procedure many women are required to undergo when IVF results in too many pregnancies at once, which can pose a health risk. In these cases, the mothers undergo surgery to remove some of the babies to decrease the risk for the woman and the remaining babies. Make no mistake: this is selective abortion. For Tennessee to remain a strong pro-life state, the statute’s provisions must change.
“[SB 449] creates a statutory right [for] anyone to create and destroy human embryos without qualification, limitation, or restriction,” Rep. Gino Bulso noted in a floor speech. “Why is that a problem? That’s a problem because it does not treat a human embryo as a person or as a child, which our law does in many places. Our law actually defines a human embryo as a person in three separate parts of our code.”
Bulso went on to explain that Tennessee’s code defines an “unborn child” to be a child from fertilization (conception) to birth. “Those definitions are scientifically accurate,” he said, noting that at the moment of conception, a new human being is brought into existence with a unique genetic code.
Bulso proposed an amendment that would have enabled Tennessee to enforce its “compelling interest in the protection of the life of an unborn child … at every stage from fertilization until birth.” Unfortunately, that amendment did not make it to the finish line.
Even the Senate Majority Leader, who voted for this bill, is now in agreement that it has “slippery slope” language with “ambiguity” in it, stating just 10 days ago that “I think we will be back next year to take another stab at it.” We plan to strongly advocate for this.
There are several other concerns with this law beyond those stated above, and FACT will be pressing these concerns with our elected officials. FACT’s board was unanimous in calling on Governor Lee to veto this bill. We now call for him to use his influence to urge legislators to correct this law that has created multiple and dangerous new “rights” in Tennessee.
