2/25/26

 

Under Tennessee law, homicide can carry the death penalty. Now, Tennessee Republican lawmakers have introduced House Bill 570 / Senate Bill 738—legislation that declares life must be protected “from fertilization to natural death.”

By revising homicide statutes to include abortion under the same legal framework, this bill enables capital punishment for women who receive abortion care and for physicians who provide it. While the bill has not yet been formally filed, if it is filed and passed, its provisions would take effect July 1, 2026—that’s just a few months away. Here’s what you need to know about this bill, the five white Republican men behind it, and how you can do your part to help stop this bill from advancing.

Let’s Address This.

Who Is Behind This Bill?

Sponsored by Rep. Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) and backed by Reps. Bud Hulsey, Monty Fritts, and Ed Butler — with a Senate companion bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Pody — this proposal revises Tennessee’s assault and homicide statutes to apply the same legal standards to abortion as existing homicide laws. As you can see below, it is quite a diverse bunch sponsoring this barbaric piece of legislation.

Last year, I sounded the alarm about South Carolina introducing a bill redefining personhood to criminalize abortion as homicide. At the time, I warned that even if such bills failed, their repeated introduction would shift the Overton Window and embolden lawmakers in other states to follow suit.

This bill in Tennessee is an example of this possibility materializing into reality. Let’s be clear about what this means. The legal architecture they are constructing makes abortion legally indistinguishable from homicide. This is draconian. And, worse, this bill is being introduced in a state that already leads the nation in maternal mortality.

The Facts Tennessee Lawmakers Cannot Ignore

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Tennessee ranks number one in the nation for maternal mortality between 2018 and 2022. During that five-year period, there were 166 pregnancy-related deaths in Tennessee, giving the state a maternal mortality rate of 41.1 deaths per 100,000 births — more than double the national average of 18.6.

Tennessee Republican lawmakers could have some humanity and meaningfully addressing this crisis—which might include expanding access to prenatal care, investing in rural hospitals, or funding maternal health programs. Instead, they are proposing legislation that will escalate criminal penalties against women experiencing pregnancy complications and those seeking reproductive care.

This is not about protecting life. It is about exerting control.

When a state with the highest maternal mortality rate in America proposes legislation that would treat abortion as homicide, it is not “pro-life.” It is reckless governance. When I wrote about South Carolina’s bill, thousands of you mobilized. Calls were made. Pressure was applied. The bill was stalled.

But I cautioned then that the introduction itself was strategic. The goal was not necessarily immediate passage. The goal was normalization. The goal was to move the conversation further toward criminalization so that what once seemed unthinkable would become merely “controversial.”

Now Tennessee is following that path.

This is how coordinated national strategies operate. Introduce extreme legislation in one state. Gauge reaction. Refine the language. Introduce similar bills elsewhere. Repeat until one advances far enough to reach federal courts.

If we treat each bill as an isolated anomaly, we will continue playing defense. If we recognize this as a coordinated effort, we can respond accordingly.

If you’re finding value in this analysis and insight, I invite you to join our community of 170,000+ activists and subscribe.

What You Can Do — Nationwide

This is not only a Tennessee issue. It is a national test case. If these bills advance in one state, others will follow.

You can act right now.

Contact the bill sponsors and make clear that criminalizing women and exposing them to capital punishment for seeking abortion care is unacceptable. Below I provide their publicly available contact numbers, address, emails, and a script to help guide your remarks.

Rep. Jody Barrett

425 Rep. John Lewis Way N.

Suite 596 Cordell Hull Bldg.

Nashville, TN 37243

Phone: (615) 741-3513

Fax: (615) 253-0244

Email: rep.jody.barrett@capitol.tn.gov

Rep. Bud Hulsey

425 Rep. John Lewis Way N.

Suite 519 Cordell Hull Bldg.

Nashville, TN 37243

Phone: (615) 741-2886

Fax: (615) 253-0247

Email: rep.bud.hulsey@capitol.tn.gov

Rep. Monty Fritts

425 Rep. John Lewis Way N.

Suite 430 Cordell Hull Bldg.

Nashville, TN 37243

Phone: (615) 741-7658

Fax: (615) 253-0163

Email: rep.monty.fritts@capitol.tn.gov

Rep. Ed Butler

425 Rep. John Lewis Way N.

Suite 578 Cordell Hull Bldg.

Nashville, TN 37243

Phone: (615) 741-1260

Fax: (615) 253-0328

Email: rep.ed.butler@capitol.tn.gov

Sen. Mark Pody

425 Rep. John Lewis Way N.

Suite 754 Cordell Hull Bldg.

Nashville, TN 37243

Phone: (615) 741-2421

Fax: (615) 253-0205

Email: sen.mark.pody@capitol.tn.gov

You can use this simple script:

Subject: Vote NO on HB 570 / SB 738

My name is ________, and I am writing to urge you to reject House Bill 570 / Senate Bill 738.

Tennessee already has the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation. Criminalizing abortion as homicide will not protect women — it will endanger them.

Revising homicide statutes to apply to abortion creates a pathway to capital punishment for women and providers. That is extreme, reckless, and harmful.

I urge you to vote NO and instead focus on policies that actually reduce maternal deaths and improve access to health care.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Mobilization matters. Legislators track call volume. They track email spikes. They measure opposition. We have stopped similar bills before. We can do it again.

This Is Not Going Away

These efforts will continue unless we respond with equal persistence. They are coordinated, strategic, and designed to escalate. Silence enables that escalation.

I will continue to monitor these developments and elevate them in real time. State-level extremism often receives minimal national coverage until it is too late. As a human rights lawyer, I believe it is essential to track these patterns early, explain their implications clearly, and mobilize before damage becomes irreversible.

If you value that work, I ask you to support it.

Subscribe to Let’s Address This. Share this article. Help grow this platform so that we can continue exposing and organizing against these threats—especially at the state level, where many of the most consequential battles are unfolding quietly.

As these barbaric pieces of legislation spread, we must match and exceed that escalation with sustained, organized resistance. My gratitude to each of you who are in this fight for human rights. Let’s continue to support each other to elevate our impact.

___________________________________________________

Read the full article with links and receipts: https://www.qasimrashid.com/.../tennessee-gop-intro-bill...

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The Business Plot of 1933 was an alleged conspiracy in which a group of wealthy American industrialists and financiers sought to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal policies threatened their economic interests.

According to retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, the conspirators planned to recruit him to lead a massive veterans’ organization, modeled on European fascist movements, and use it to pressure or forcibly remove, Roosevelt from office. Butler testified under oath in 1934 before the McCormack–Dickstein Committee, revealing that the plotters intended to install him as a figurehead dictator while they controlled the government behind the scenes.

Although the committee found Butler’s testimony credible, no one was prosecuted, and major newspapers at the time downplayed or dismissed the story. Later investigations and historical analyses suggest the plotters underestimated Butler’s loyalty to democratic institutions; instead of joining them, he exposed the scheme.

The Business Plot remains one of the most striking examples of how economic elites, threatened by sweeping reforms during the Great Depression, considered extreme measures to preserve their power.

#plot #thehistoriansden

 

 

BREAKING: “MADE ME PHYSICALLY SICK!” A federal grand juror just broke her silence on what she heard while serving on a grand jury involved in Epstein trials, and every American needs to hear what she said.

A former federal grand juror who served for the last year and a half spoke out on a recent video, sharing from her car the raw toll of hearing cases involving depravity and child exploitation. Bound by secrecy rules not to discuss specifics, she made one powerful point clear: the horrors in the Epstein files are NOT fiction.

She said: “I think that there are a lot of you out there who look at some of the stuff in the Epstein file releases and you say there's no way this happened. This is not a real thing. This is a figment of someone's imagination, but I want to tell you that stuff does happen.”

The juror described leaving grand jury sessions deeply disturbed and nauseated by the evidence she heard. “On more than one occasion when I left the grand jury I was physically sick from the things that I had to hear while I was there. These memories of some of those things that will always be with me.”

She said she learned that evil exists: “There are people in the world that are this depraved. There are people in the world that hurt children. There are people in the world that are just wired so screwed up or had so much trauma. I don't know what causes these things, but for whatever reason they are capable. Maybe they're just soulless.

Her summation cut deep: “There’s nothing that I have read in the Epstein files that is that far-fetched to me.”

This is not speculation from a pundit on TV. It is testimony from a real person who sat through real evidence, real testimony, real pain. The Epstein files are not conspiracy theories or tabloid fantasy. They document crimes against children by powerful people who thought they were untouchable. When a grand juror says the depravity is believable and leaves her physically ill, it demands attention.

The administration’s selective releases, redactions, and delays only deepen the wound. Survivors and the public deserve full transparency, not half-measures and excuses. Evil thrives in darkness. Light is the only cure.

If this grand juror’s words shake you to the core, like and share to demand the full truth be released.

BREAKING: “YOU HAVE KILLED AMERICANS!” Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar bravely confront Trump at the State of the Union over the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by his masked goons!

When Trump inevitably unleashed his avalanche of racism and fearmongering over immigration at tonight’s State of the Union, he met some unexpected pushback from Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Rep. Norma Torres.

“You have killed Americans!” Omar says.

"We saw the videos too... you are killing Americans!" Tlaib yells.

“You should be ashamed of yourself!” yells Trump in response.

“YOU should be ashamed of yourself!” retorts Ilhan.

He SHOULD be ashamed of himself. His fascistic goon squads have MURDERED two American citizens and brutalized countless more in a rampage of wanton violence and terror in pursuit of a mass deportation regime to ethnically cleanse the United States and funnel billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of private prison corporations by way of for-profit concentration camps.

While some may tut-tut at their yelling at him during the speech, we’re long past the point where decorum matters. Decorum won’t save us from stolen elections, Palantir surveillance, or ICE bullets.

Only getting mad, fighting back, and winning in November will.

Spread his shame. He should never be able to appear in public again without hearing the names Renee Good and Alex Pretti, for their blood is on his hands.

 

 Oh, yeah!!! It came to light he is, or was, obsessed with the Epstein files, of which Donald J. Trump is the star. He's mentioned, so it's been told, over one million times. Guess that must have been hard to swallow, pardon the pun.

 

BREAKING: Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is FIRING BACK after Elon Musk’s smear linking her to cartels — and now Mexico is ready to lawyer up.

Elon Musk just lobbed a social media grenade at the president of Mexico — and it may land him in court.

After Mexican forces captured and killed notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel boss “El Mencho,” Musk took to X to respond to an old video of President Claudia Sheinbaum discussing cartel violence. Without offering a shred of evidence, Musk claimed she was “saying what her cartel bosses tell her to say.”

Cartel bosses?

That’s not a policy disagreement. That’s an accusation of criminal conspiracy against a sitting head of state.

Sheinbaum didn’t laugh it off. She announced Tuesday that her government is reviewing potential legal action. “We are considering whether to take legal action,” she said during her morning press conference.

The video Musk referenced showed Sheinbaum arguing that returning to a full-scale “war on drugs” — like the bloody military offensive launched in 2006 — would be outside the legal framework and would only fuel more violence. That war splintered cartels and triggered years of turf battles, contributing to Mexico’s still-high homicide rate.

But nuance doesn’t trend. Outrage does.

Musk’s comment came at a tense moment. In the wake of El Mencho’s capture, cartel members launched roadblocks and arson attacks. Sheinbaum insisted the government is seeking “peace, not war,” and denied any shift toward a more militarized strategy.

Meanwhile, leaders from her MORENA party fired back hard. Party president Luisa Alcalde reminded Musk that “wealth does not give moral authority,” and suggested he focus his platform on fighting drug consumption, disinformation, and narco culture — especially since much of the demand and many of the firearms fueling cartel violence originate north of the border.

Mexico is grappling with more than 130,000 missing persons tied largely to cartel violence. In that context, tossing around baseless cartel allegations isn’t just reckless — it’s inflammatory.

Now the world’s richest man could find himself answering to lawyers instead of followers. Turns out, when you accuse a president of working for drug lords, there may be consequences beyond the algorithm.

HEAR, HEAR!!! This is the moment Karma, in all her awful, vengeful splendor, just shoved a "BIGLY" ground glass coated "UP YOURS" to every Christianazi pro-lifer in existence. Breastfeeding is pro-life, you dumb unreconstructed wankers!