The “Tennessee Abortion-Inducing Drug Risk Protocol Act” was passed on May 9, 2022, and took effect on January 1, 2023.
According to the state of Tennessee, this act states that abortion-inducing drugs must be provided only by a qualified physician in a medical facility. This prohibits the distribution of the drug, even by pharmacies, physicians, and qualified physicians, through delivery and mail services.
This does not ban Plan B or other emergency contraceptives.
Recently, the Food and Drug Administration announced that they would be expanding access to abortion-inducing drugs. This means that pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens will be able to provide pills such as Mifepristone.
As of December 1, 2022, the Guttmacher Institute says that medical abortions account for 54 percent of all abortions. While this law took effect this year, abortion is still illegal in the state of Tennessee. Governor Bill Lee signed the Tennessee Abortion-Inducing Drug Risk Protocol Act into law in May of 2022, prior to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Many were thrilled regarding the FDA’s announcement, as it marks a monumental step in abortion access. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union said, “The FDA’s decision comes at a crisis moment for reproductive freedom, as access to abortion has plummeted nationwide in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overruling Roe v. Wade.”
However, Tennesseans, such as state House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland), did not share this excitement. In regards to abortion-inducing pills, Lamberth recently tweeted, “In Tennessee we value the lives of mothers AND their children. It isn’t just a pill, this pill kills a child.”
On August 25, 2022, a Tennessee law went into effect that made providing abortions a felony.
As we reported in August, the Human Life Protection Act “was passed in 2019 just in case the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturned the landmark Roe. v. Wade.”
The current law does not allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, or any fetal abnormality that could prove fatal to the baby. The law only allows an abortion in Tennessee if giving birth would kill the pregnant woman or would prevent “serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of major bodily function.”
The text of the bill defines abortion as “the elective use or prescription of an instrument, medicine, drug, or other substance, or device, with the intent to terminate the clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a patient, with knowledge that the termination by those means will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the unborn child.”
According to the text of the bill, a qualified physician has the “ability to identify and document a viable intrauterine pregnancy,” and “assess the gestational age of pregnancy and inform the patient of gestational age-specific risks.”
Among other duties, a qualified physician must also “supervise and bear legal responsibility for an agent, employee, or contractor who is participating in any part of a procedure, including, but not limited to, pre-procedure evaluation and care.”
The bill also defines an “abortion-inducing drug” as a “medicine, drug, or other substance provided with the intent of terminating the clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a patient, with knowledge that the termination will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the unborn child.”
This also includes drugs “known to have abortion-inducing properties that are prescribed specifically with the intent of causing an abortion.” Some of these drugs are Mifepristone, Misoprostol, and Methotrexate.
Violation in this act results in a Class E felony, and the individual can be fined no more than $50,000. The patient, however, will not receive any criminal penalties.
