Holidays and Days of Special Observance - As enacted, designates January 22 of each year as "Sanctity of Life Day." - Amends TCA Title 15, Chapter 2. Companion bill has been assigned Public Chapter Number 879 by the Secr, the official text

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                      ~tate of \leennessee

                          PUBLIC CHAPTER NO. 879

                                                  HOUSE BILL NO. 1784

  By Representatives Bulso, Powers, Moody, Leatherwood, Raper, Capley, Greg Martin,
                                      McCalmon, Todd, Terry, Lynn, Garrett

                                       Substituted for: Senate Bill No. 1940

            By Senators Hensley, Lowe, Crowe, Gardenhire, Pody, Rose, Seal, White

         AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 15, Chapter 2, relative to days of
special observance.

         WHEREAS, our nation's founding document recognizes that we are endowed by our
Creator with certain unalienable rights and that among these rights are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness; and

          WHEREAS, the right to life is the first unalienable right recognized in our Declaration of
Independence; and

          WHEREAS, the freedom and liberty we treasure as Americans rest upon our
commitment to the protection of the sanctity of life; and

          WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court improvidently issued its ruling in Roe v.
Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) on January 22, 1973, preventing Tennessee and other states from
extending the protection of its laws to unborn children; and

          WHEREAS, on January 13, 1984, President Ronald Reagan issued Proclamation 5147,
recognizing that in the aftermath of the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade on
January 22, 1973, more than 15 million unborn children had lost their lives due to legalized
abortion; and

          WHEREAS, in Proclamation 5147 President Reagan designated January 22 as National
Sanctity of Human Life Day; and

          WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v.
Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), and affirmed that Tennessee and
other states may extend the protection of its laws to unborn children; and

          WHEREAS, Tennessee extended the protection of its laws to unborn children
immediately upon the reversal of Roe v. Wade by the United States Supreme Court under
Dobbs; and

          WHEREAS, Tennessee remains committed to the values and freedoms enshrined in our
nation's founding document, including the unalienable right to life; now, therefore,

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

          SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 15, Chapter 2, is amended by adding the
following as a new section:

                    January 22 of each year is observed as "Sanctity of Life Day" so that Tennessee
          may renew its commitment each year to protect the sanctity of life, and to honor the lives
          of those unborn children lost to legalized abortion.

          SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.
         HOUSE BILL NO. 1784

PASSED:  April 9, 2026

                                  CAMERON SEXTON, SPEAKER
                                  HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                                  RANDY MCNALL1
                                     SPEAKER OF THE SENAT

Apt; APPROVED this :JJU.. day of  I  2026

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BILL LEE, GOVERNOR