Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, recites the Pledge of Allegiance on the House floor Thursday, March 28, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Tennessee state Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) introduced a bill Monday that would implement a $5 million fine for individuals or groups who mail abortion pills into the state.

Although Tennessee currently imposes a total abortion ban, which criminalizes the procedure with no exceptions, Bulso introduced House Bill 26 on Monday in an effort to stop abortion-inducing drugs from entering the state.

The bill’s “Unborn Child Protection Section” states that “a person or entity who mails or delivers an abortion-inducing drug into this state and the mailing or delivery results in the death of an unborn child is strictly liable in the amount of five million dollars.” In an interview with WKRN News 2, Bulso said his bill addresses the “problem” of abortion pills being mailed into Tennessee, which he falsely said is currently illegal (it is strictly regulated but still legal.)

“One, it would serve as an additional deterrent for manufacturers or distributors or others of abortion pills from breaking the law and sending abortion pills into Tennessee, and then secondly, it would provide a needed civil recovery for the loss of the life of the unborn child,” Bulso said.

Bulso also told The Tennessean that the $5 million fine is “reasonable” considering the “economic and noneconomic value of life” and that unborn children are protected under the state’s wrongful death statute.

Planned Parenthood responded by contending that HB 26 is also a fetal personhood bill. The first line of the bill states that the General Assembly finds that “human life begins at fertilization” and that “an unborn child is entitled to the full and equal protection of the laws that prohibit violence against any other person.” Similar laws in Alabama led to the state Supreme Court threatening the access to in-vitro fertilization in February.

On the same day Bulso filed HB 26, Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) filed a bill called the “Reproductive Freedom Act,” which would establish the fundamental right to reproductive freedom. Behn’s bill will likely not make it far in the Republican-dominated state legislature. Tennessee is entering the 15th year of a GOP trifecta at the state level, partially due to gerrymandering.

The 62-year-old Bulso is an attorney who has served in the Tennessee House of Representatives since 2023. Bulso was one of two representatives out of 99 to vote against a bill to ban marriage between first cousins, saying his grandparents were first cousins and downplaying the risks of birth defects from incestual reproduction.