Rachel Welty and Aftry Behn v. Bryant C. Dunaway, et al.

Nashville, Tennessee civil rights lawyers represented the Plaintiff seeking injunctive relief.



In May 2024, Tennessee enacted the Underage Abortion Trafficking Act. 2024 Tenn. Pub. Acts, ch. 1032 (codified at Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-15-201). The Act bans adults from "intentionally recruit[ing], harbor[ing], or transport[ing] a pregnant unemancipated minor” within Tennessee "for the purpose of” concealing an abortion from the minor's parents, procuring an abortion for the minor, or obtaining an abortion-inducing drug for the minor. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-15-201(a)(1)–(3). Among other exceptions, the Act does not apply to the minor's parents or to any adult who receives parental consent. Id. § 39-15-201(c)(1)–(2). The Act treats a violation as a misdemeanor punishable by eleven months and twenty-nine days in

prison. Id. § 39-15-201(b).



Rachel Welty is a family-law attorney, and Aftyn Behn is a social worker and Tennessee representative. Both are abortion-rights advocates, and as part of that advocacy they frequently distribute information about abortion options. They filed this lawsuit against eleven of Tennessee's district attorneys general, claiming that the Act's ban on "intentionally recruit[ing]” minors violated their federal constitutional right to free speech and their due process right not to

be subject to vague criminal laws.



Before the Act went into effect, Welty and Behn moved for a preliminary injunction to block Tennessee from enforcing the recruitment provision. Tennessee opposed the motion. On July 1, 2024, the Act went into effect.

On July 18, 2025, the district court entered summary judgment for Welty and Behn on the free speech claims and for Tennessee on the vagueness claim. The district court permanently enjoined Tennessee from enforcing the Act’s recruitment provision against anyone.



Dismissed