Nearly one in five Tennessee children live in poverty, a measure of well-being that varies sharply by geography.
In rural northeast Lake County, for example, the number of children living below the poverty line is double the state average; meanwhile in wealthy Williamson County, fewer than 4 percent of children are being raised under such economic strains.
The data, released Tuesday by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, paints an uneven portrait of Tennessee’s children in county-by-county snapshots that also measure rates of low birth-weight babies, educational outcomes, childcare costs, child abuse and family circumstances.
County poverty rates coincide with other stressors facing families with children. The ten counties with the highest rates of poverty for kids also are among those with the greatest rates of low birth-weight babies, child care cost burdens and food insecurity, according to the agency’s annual 2023 County Profiles in Child Well-Being, which measured 52 different metrics that impact the states’ children.
The high poverty rates straddle both rural and urban areas. Among the top 10 counties for child poverty are Shelby and Davidson, which include Nashville and Memphis, the state’s largest cities. Small-population counties of Haywood, Hardeman and Madison Counties in west Tennessee and Campbell in eastern Tennessee also have outsized numbers of poor children.
The report also revealed wide educational disparities.
A child living in the lowest performing county was half as likely to be proficient in TCAP reading than the state average, the report found. A child in Perry County was far more likely — by a factor of nearly 10 — to be absent from school than a child in Blount County.
The disparities also extended to rates of child abuse and neglect, a data point that could signal either higher incidents of harm — or differing levels of investigations or enforcement actions by state child welfare officials or local law enforcement.
Clay County had the highest rate of substantiated abuse or neglect at nearly 34 per 1,000 children. Moore County had the lowest at 0.8 per 1,000.
“These county profiles always serve as a reminder that the experience, opportunities, and access to positive outcomes can look vastly different for each child in Tennessee.” said Richard Kennedy, executive director of Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.
The report is released annually by the commission, an independent state-funded entity responsible for providing objective analyses and serving as a watchdog for the Department of Children’s Services.
The commission earlier this year survived an effort backed by the administration of Gov. Bill Lee to dissolve it, after it released a critical report on the DCS’s work
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Tyson chicken barns, like these in West Tennessee, house more than 624,000 chickens each and produce massive quantities of waste. (Photo: John Partipilo)
The first sign of something awry was the road closure on the two-lane country road that goes right past Will Burton’s Weakley County farm, his fields, barns and the one-story house he shares with his fiancee and three kids.
White trucks — emblazoned with the seal of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and “fire and burn” stickers — began rolling past around the same time the family began smelling a terrible, new odor. It was distinct from the smell of chicken waste that has been ever-present since a 16-barn industrial chicken operation, a raw meat supplier for Tyson Foods, moved in two years ago over Burton’s objections.
Within days, the smell had bloomed into an overpowering stench of rotting carcasses. The stench now permeates their home, and has cost everyone in the family a good night’s sleep — something Burton said his fiancee’s 11-year-old son with autism has struggled with the most.
My concern is that hundreds of thousands of dead chickens that are infected with the highly pathogenic bird flu are being left to compost on site, beside my house, beside water resources, stinking the whole neighborhood out. How is that safe or legal?
– Will Burton, Weakley County farmer
“He’s losing sleep,” Burton said. “Teachers are sending us notes home that he’s not able to concentrate. I’m getting headaches. It’s just like getting hit in the face — not with chickens, but with death. Just death and rotting carcasses.”
The chicken farm next door, Burton learned after frustrated attempts to get help from state environmental and agriculture officials, is the site of a massive outbreak of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) — a virus whose only remedy is destroying infected or exposed chickens.
On Friday, state officials said that more than 267,000 birds have been destroyed in barns this week, just a few hundred feet from Burton’s house. The carcasses will remain in the barns until a composting process is complete — something that can take up to a month, according to information provided Friday by a Department of Agriculture spokesperson.
The recent national outbreak of avian flu was first detected in Tennessee in a backyard flock in Obion County in September. Since then, cases have been detected in Tipton and Bledsoe County. While some outbreaks have occurred among backyard flocks, at least two have occurred on industrial farms that serve as contractors to Tyson Foods.
Poultry barns for a Tyson Foods industrial chicken farm in Weakley County. At least 267,000 chickens have been killed and will be left to “compost” for up to a month because of avian flu. (Photo: John Partipilo)
“Unfortunately, HPAI continues to spread to farms of all sizes,” Tennessee State Veterinarian Dr. Samantha Beaty said in a Jan. 20 news release about the outbreak next door to the Burtons. “There have been four previous detections in Weakley County affecting backyard flocks. It’s apparent this disease remains a threat to the poultry industry.”
State officials say the outbreak poses no harm to human health from infected birds.
But Burton has questions about the impact on his family. He said he hasn’t been able to get answers from state agriculture and environment officials.
As part of containment efforts, the state established a 12.4 mile zone around the barns, requiring all commercial and backyard poultry within the zone to be tested and monitored for the virus.
The process of killing chickens, then composting them inside the barns in the property adjacent to the Burton’s house was approved by the state’s chief veterinarian, the USDA and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the agricultural department spokesperson said.
That process, laid out in painstaking detail in a 31-page protocol shared by the department, consists of adding a six to eight-foot mound of carcasses, litter and feed to a base of mulch on the barn floor, where it is then topped with a layer of sawdust-like materials. In about 28 days, the compost will be ready for removal, the protocol said.
None of the state interventions include mitigating odors, because no state agency in Tennessee regulates them, a source of irritation for Burton, who said he has contacted state environmental and agricultural officials, none of whom would offer any help.
No other environmental monitoring is ongoing at the site beyond the testing of wild birds by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources agency, the spokesperson said.
“Since composting mortalities is a common and accepted method in agriculture, no permit is needed in this case,” she said.
In “composting,” dead birds are piled in six- to eight-foot mounds with chicken feed, litter, mulch and a layer of sawdust, where it can remain for up to a month. State officials say it’s an approved method for disposing of diseased chickens.
“It’s an ag-related odor, they told me,” Burton said. Such odors are protected from nuisance complaints under Tennessee law.
The state’s Right to Farm law, designed to protect Tennessee farmers from nuisance claims by suburbanites or other newcomers moving into an agriculture community, has prevented local farmers from challenging Tyson contractors over odors or other potential environmental hazards before.
It’s been a sore point for communities in west Tennessee that have seen Tyson contractors buy up land and establish large-scale industrial chicken operations in close proximity to family farms, residential homes and neighborhoods.
Burton has emailed Tyson Foods as well. Tyson, which does not own the farm, relies on its contractor to build barns according to Tyson specifications, raise chicks supplied by Tyson, feed them grain supplied by Tyson, sell them at rates set by Tyson and abide by all Tyson rules.
Burton has not gotten a response, he said Friday. Tyson did not respond to the Lookout either.
“My concern is that hundreds of thousands of dead chickens that are infected with the highly pathogenic bird flu are being left to compost on site, beside my house, beside water resources, stinking the whole neighborhood out. How is that safe or legal?”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
The exterior of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights building. TIRRC is one of several local organizations helping asylum seekers and refugees to their homes with relatives ion the U.S.(Photo: John Partipilo)
After state Republican leaders condemned a plan to bring asylum seekers to Tennessee, faith leaders and immigrant advocates pushed back on “misleading” and “fear mongering” rhetoric they said runs contrary to the values of the Volunteer State.
In a flurry of statements released last week, Gov. Bill Lee, GOP Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, along with GOP leaders in the state legislature demanded that the Biden administration reverse a plan – still in its preliminary stages – to coordinate transportation of asylum seekers with advocacy groups and churches in Nashville.
“This is irresponsible and a threat to the safety of Tennesseans,” Lee said in his statement. Blackburn suggested the federal government was “trafficking illegal migrants into our state.” And Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti cited the “terrible harms” of an unsecured border that include fentanyl deaths and “child sex traffickers.”
The fact is none of this is new. What is new, and an important first step, is a good faith effort to organize a coordinated response between governments and local process, to ensure that it is orderly.
– Lisa Sherman Luna, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition
On Wednesday, immigrant advocates noted that the plan was an effort by the federal government to coordinate what has been a loose and ongoing process of migrants making their way to Nashville after being vetted and released by ICE officials, often for short stints before reuniting with family in other states.
“For decades, Tennesseans have done this work formally and informally,” said Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, citing a history of welcoming immigrants and refugees that stretch back to the 1960s when Cubans arrived and continues today with Afghan and Ukrainian refugees. “We’ve welcomed people and supported them as they rebuild their lives in this country.”
“The fact is none of this is new,” she said. “Welcoming and hospitality is woven into the fabric of who Tennesseans are…What is new, and an important first step, is a good faith effort to organize a coordinated response between governments and local process, to ensure that it is orderly.”
“While we’ve seen other governors and mayors who have responded to newcomers arriving in buses from border states, using their power and resources to make the process as smooth as possible, Gov. Lee’s response is really extreme and out of step with his constituents. Everyday Tennesseans don’t need or want a governor who creates a crisis by going on Fox News. We need leadership who is going to live up to our values, who will join the work of our communities and not miss an opportunity to help people get home to their families in time for Christmas.”
Several weeks ago, Sherman Luna and other groups got word that federal immigration officials were seeking an orderly way to transport asylum seekers from federal immigration processing centers – a process that currently requires immigrants to make their own way to their final destination.
The plan called for federal officials to pay for buses to transport those who wished to travel to Tennessee. Local nonprofits and churches quickly stepped up to plan for temporary beds, transportation vouchers for flights out of Tennessee, food, diapers and other necessities, Sherman Luna said.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said he is “exploring all options” to halt plans to coordinate coordinate transportation of asylum seekers with advocacy groups and churches in Nashville.
“When we put the call to action out, calling on people to help us get loved ones home just in time for Christmas we were overwhelmed with the support from volunteers, from churches and other partners who quickly stepped up to organize a robust and welcoming infrastructure,” she said.
The status of those plans remains unclear. Skrmetti said he was “exploring all options” in efforts to halt the plans.
The vast majority of the immigrants are asylum seekers who have followed the legal process of presenting themselves at the U.S. border, assessed and found to have a credible fear of persecution in their home countries, said Lisa Graybill, vice president of Law and Policy for the National Immigration Law Center, who joined a press call with reporters to respond to Republican’s claims.
A small minority of the immigrants would fall into a subset of asylum seekers who are making a second or subsequent attempt to come to the United States, she said. All of the potential immigrants have immigration court dates, are required to check in regularly with federal immigration officials and cleared the first hurdle in their asylum claims.
The Border Patrol also screens all immigrants against multiple public safety databases, and assess whether the individual poses a general threat to public safety before releasing any individuals, an ICE spokesperson said.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Tyson chicken barns, like these in West Tennessee, house more than 624,000 chickens each and produce massive quantities of waste. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Brenda Scott’s father came to west Tennessee as a sharecropper. By 1971 — as a result of hard work and government loans — he had 129 acres of his own, some of which his descendants occupy today.
His adult children and grandchildren belong to an enclave of Black farming families that have lived in Henderson County’s Cedar Grove community for generations. Some continue to raise hogs, cattle and crops. Others, like Scott, left for college and jobs, only to return to raise their kids.
Scott, along with many Cedar Grove families, have now become part of a novel legal challenge to a federal government farm loan program they say has allowed industrial poultry operations to proliferate at a cost to the long established community.
I really want to stress the fact that this was a predominantly Black community growing up; it’s legacy land we want our kids to grow up on and enjoy the freedoms and experiences we had growing up. . . My fear now is that there’s no regulations for these chicken operators.
– Brenda Scott, Cedar Grove, Tennessee farmer
Chicken farms have rapidly expanded across rural west Tennessee in recent years in order to supply product to Tyson Foods, the world’s largest poultry producer. The Fortune 500 company’s footprint has been rapidly expanding in the state.
Last year, Tyson opened a $425 million meat processing plant in nearby Humboldt, Tenn., its third large-scale Tennessee plant. The operation was made possible, in part, by $20 million in taxpayer incentives from the administration of Gov. Bill Lee.
Tyson relies on contract growers located within about a 60 mile radius of their slaughtering plants. The contractors raise chicks supplied by Tyson in massive barns built according to Tyson specifications and bring them to Tyson’s Humboldt plant for slaughter in order to get paid.
Scott, who is 56, said her community shares the same concerns as family farmers in adjoining counties who in recent years have tried — and failed — to get local or state governments to more closely regulate industrial chicken farming operations.
The operations produce vast quantities of chicken manure that she fears will pollute the well water her family relies on for drinking, the streams and creeks they fish for catfish and the quality of life that beckoned her back home to raise her two sons.
“I really want to stress the fact that this was a predominantly Black community growing up; it’s legacy land we want our kids to grow up on and enjoy the freedoms and experiences we had growing up,” she said. “There’s nothing like country living.”
“My fear now is that there’s no regulations for these chicken operators. What’s going to happen to my grandchildren drinking our well water? What about the air quality? I have asthma. So do members of my family. And nobody is telling us anything.”
Gov. Bill Lee greeting workers at the 2021 opening of a Tyson plant in Humboldt, Tennessee. (Photo: John Partipilo)
A new lawsuit brought by the Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Scott and neighbors who banded together to form “Concerned Citizens of West Tennessee,” is now challenging the federal government’s role in providing tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-backed loans to Tyson contract growers.
The litigation claims the United States Department of Agriculture, through the Farm Service Agency, is illegally subsidizing industrial chicken operations through a federal lending program intended to provide “family farms” with startup and operational capital.
“The FSA loan guarantees are illegal corporate welfare that contravene federal lending rules,” the lawsuit said.
“The federal loan guarantees are illegal because the lending program is reserved for helping ‘family farms.’ Because Tyson controls virtually all aspects of the industrial chicken growing operations, those facilities are not ‘family farms’ under applicable lending rules.”
The lawsuit also accuses the Farm Service Agency of failing to follow its own rules in conducting thorough environmental impact studies of farm operations seeking the loans — or in keeping local communities informed.
Instead, the federal agency only conducts perfunctory environmental reviews, before issuing “rubber stamped approval,” according to the suit.
The lawsuit names a pair of affiliated operations across the street from one another in the Cedar Grove community that are owned by two limited liability companies — Trang Nguyen, LLC and Nguyen LLC. Each LLC is owned by one individual.
Each operation has 8 chicken barns, massive single-story structures the length of a football field that hold 624,000 Tyson chickens at any given time.
The barns, along with an open-air chicken waste dumping area, lie adjacent to a subdivision of more than a dozen homes and are located within 3 miles of the Cedar Grove community’s four Black churches, Scott said. On the far side of the barns, a Mennonite farming community has lived for decades.
Scott is a longtime member of Bible Hill Baptist Church. Her husband pastors two of the other churches: Mount Pleasant Methodist and Seats Chapel Holiness Church.
“We see them every Sunday,” Scott said. “I can see them on my way to church.”
The USDA did not respond to a request for comment, and contact information for Trang Nguyen LLC and Nguyen LLC’s could not be immediately found.
Poultry farmers that contract with Tyson buy land and build barns in communities surrounding the company’s processing plants to serve as sole company suppliers. Many of the farmers have little or no prior farming background. A growing number of Vietnamese-American families have moved to Tennessee from elsewhere in the nation to start their own Tyson-contracted chicken-growing operations.
In 2017 — the same year Tyson announced its plans to open its Humboldt facility — Tennessee lawmakers rolled back a requirement for poultry growers to obtain water quality permits from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
According to the lawsuit, Trang Nguyen, LLC bought 152 acres in Henderson County and Nguyen, LLC bought 128 acres; then the two farmers collectively secured federal loan guarantees of approximately $3.5 million to purchase, construct and operate the facilities.
The federal loan assistance can take the form of direct loans of up to $600,000 from the Farm Service Agency or up to $2,037,000 through a commercial lender with FSA loan guarantees. The loans are confined to farmers and their family members
The rules guide agency officials to define a “family farm” as one that is “recognized in the community as a farm,” and that has “day-to-day management operational decisions should be made by members of the family farm”
Tyson financed a large portion of the cost of the building the Nguyens’ facilities, contributing more than $960,000 in construction funding, the lawsuit said.
“The Nguyen’s will not be poultry ‘farmers,’” the lawsuit alleged. “They will be poultry caretakers who own neither chicken nor feed. They will be much like indentured servants, strapped with tremendous debt and laboring within an industrial meat complex in which they are required to follow Tyson’s rules, lest they suffer extreme financial consequences.”
The lawsuit notes that other government loan programs have determined that poultry contractors do not qualify for loans because of their integration into corporate operations.
Our legislature has passed laws that make it impossible for neighbors suffering or losing their home values to go to court. The courthouse doors to these individuals are closed.
– George Nolan, Southern Environmental Law Center
Tyson “exercise(s) such comprehensive control over poultry growers that those growers do not qualify for small business loans,” the lawsuit said, noting that the Small Business Association refuses to consider the poultry growers as “small businesses” for the purpose of loans because of their control by corporate poultry corporations.
The federal loans and loan guarantees must also include an environmental assessment of the planned farm operations to “determine whether a proposed action would significantly affect the environment.” and to “involve the public in the environmental review process as early as possible.”
The federal challenge follows years of failed efforts by family farmers in other rural west Tennessee communities to challenge poultry growing operations. Those efforts have largely been stymied by state deregulation.
In 2017 — the same year Tyson announced its plans to open its Humboldt facility — Tennessee lawmakers rolled back a requirement for poultry growers to obtain water quality permits from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
In 2021, Tennessee legislature removed the power of local health boards to regulate industrial animal operations on health grounds, a preemptive move that came as the boards of health in Henderson County and adjacent Madison County weighed whether to regulate Tyson contract growers on health grounds.
And, noted George Nolan, an attorney with the environmental law firm, residents have little recourse to take legal action against the massive chicken operations because Tennessee is a Right to Farm state, a reference to a 1982 law enacted to protect farmers from nuisance lawsuits by city or suburban dwellers who moved to rural communities, then protested about the noise, odor and pesticides from farms next door.
“It’s a very problematic situation,” he said. “Our legislature has passed laws that make it impossible for neighbors suffering or losing their home values to go to court. The courthouse doors to these individuals are closed.”
James Lavel, who retired from the U.S. Navy, is an outspoken critic of the Tyson factory farms moving to west Tennessee. (Photo: John Partipilo)
James Lavel, a retired Navy commander in Henderson County, who has advocated for greater poultry operation regulation, said last week he has been frustrated by local and state elected leaders actions, and inactions, in the movement of large scale animal operations to the area, where the dangers of air and water pollution, and the overwhelming smell generated by chicken feces, have disrupted quality of life.
“I’ve gotten a hodgepodge of excuses from them,” Lavel said. “And then the FSA comes in here and uses our taxpayer money for this. If you just keep putting the people at risk you’re trying to feed, what’s the point? We need regulations. They exist to protect the people.”
Scott said the willingness of the federal government to provide Tyson contractors with federally subsidized loans and loan guarantees carry a particular sting for her, a second generation African-American farmer.
In 2018, Scott applied for the same loan program to grow watermelons on the tract she inherited from her dad, who passed away in 2003.
She was denied, she said, because she lacked “managerial experience.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
The banks of the Mississippi River at Memphis. (Photo: Dulce Torres Guzman)
John Dodson’s corn, cotton and soybean fields lie fewer than 10 miles from the Mississippi River, the key transportation artery for west Tennessee grain farmers. But they might as well be a thousand miles.
Historically low water levels on the river are coming at the worst possible time for him. It’s peak harvest season, but he can’t get his crop to market.
West Tennessee farmers have long relied on proximity to the Mississippi, delivering their crops directly from the field to the river. The ease of access has meant many farmers lack large grain storage silos that farmers in the Midwest and elsewhere rely on.
While drought strangles transportation on the Mississippi, many of these farmers are now being forced to leave crops in the field and pray for rain to fall anywhere and everywhere else but above their harvest-ready crops.
“It’s a double-edged sword for us right now,” Dodson said. “We need rain for the river to go up, but we don’t need it in terms of our crops in the field.”
“I haven’t ever seen this before. We have the Mississippi right on our back doorstep and we’ve always been able to rely on it.”
The Mississippi River last week reached the lowest levels ever recorded — at minus-10.75 feet near Memphis, according to the National Weather Service.
It is the most critical artery for grain exports in the nation. About 60% of all U.S. grain exports flow down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico for overseas export, according to the National Park Service.
It’s a double-edged sword for us right now. We need rain for the river to go up, but we don’t need it in terms of our crops in the field.
– John Dodson, Dyer County farmer
Barge traffic has been restricted and the U.S. Coast Guard has limited the weight borne by each barge, measured in drafts — or the distance between the waterline and the deepest point of the boat. Draft limits are typically 12 feet. Last week the Guard limited drafts to 9 feet below the waterline in an effort to avert groundings in shallow water.
“There’s been a lot of groundings,” said Jamie Bigbie, vice president of Southern-Devall, which operates fleets of towboats and liquid barges that typically carry fertilizer to farmers.
The delays have been have costly, he said. A recent trip that typically takes seven days down the Mississippi took the company’s crew 14 days, he said. Weight restrictions limiting the amount of cargo still require the same number of crew, driving up costs.
Crews stay on board for the entirety of the trip so the delays require additional supply boats bringing provisions and fuel to the barges, he said. And barges running aground imperil the safety of the crews on board and require expensive repairs, he said.
“We need rain, obviously,” he said. “And I hope we get rain before it turns into snow. That’s how we get the ball rolling. I pray for rain.”
Nashville-based Ingram Barge, the largest barge operator in the United States, notified customers it had declared record water levels a “force majeure event,” the company said in a statement on Friday. The declaration invokes an “act of God” provision in their contracts.
“Chronic low water conditions throughout the inland river system have had a negative effect on many who rely on the river, including Ingram Barge,” the statement from John Roberts, Ingram Barge’s CEO, said. “We recently informed customers that given the difficult operating conditions posed by this low water, we were providing formal notice of a force majeure event — namely that circumstances out of our control were preventing normal river transport operations in certain areas.”
The banks of the Mississippi River at Memphis. (Photo: Dulce Torres Guzman)
Dodson, the Dyer County farmer, said he is more fortunate than most. He and his father took advantage of a state cost-sharing program to build large grain storage structures on their farm. The situation for neighboring farms is more dire, he said. More than 90% of Dyer County is devoted to agriculture.
The wait to load grain onto Consolidated Grain & Barge in Dyersburg has been running 4-7 hours a day. Dodson’s other loading destination in Lauderdale County has experienced multiple day-long closures entirely in recent weeks.
Those two locations handle the majority of crops in Dyer, Lauderdale, Obion, Tipton, Crockett and other west Tennessee counties, including Dodson’s.
The weather in west Tennessee has been beautiful – sunny, temperate and perfect for harvesting crops. Any substantial rain now could imperil crops in the field. Dodson is setting his hopes on rain anywhere north – Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota – to replenish the river.
“We need rain in the United States, but it doesn’t need to be in Dyer County,” he said.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Dr. Amy Gordon Bono, a primary care physician, speaking outside the Tennessee Capitol on Wednesday about the state’s “trigger law” that bans abortions. The law took effect at midnight. (Photo: John Partipilo)
More than 700 Tennessee doctors, nurses and other medical professionals are calling on the state’s GOP-super majority Legislature to revisit an abortion ban that criminalizes the procedure with no exceptions and subjects doctors who perform it to prosecution, fines and jail time.
In an open letter to the legislature, published in a full page ad in The Tennessean on Sunday, the healthcare professionals are asking the General Assembly to “reconsider the ‘trigger law.’”
“Tennesseans should have the right to make personal health care decisions with the assistance of their doctors and healthcare team – without the intrusion of politicians,” the letter says.
“This law puts the government in charge of deciding which healthcare options are available to patients, setting a dangerous precedent that violates the sacred physician-patient relationship.”
“And because it includes zero exceptions – not for rape, incest, fetal anomaly, or even to protect the mother’s life – it forces health care providers to balance appropriate medical care with the risk of criminal prosecution.”
Tennessee’s trigger law, formally named the “Human Life Protection Act,” took effect Aug. 25, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark abortion rights case, Roe v Wade and left to individual states the right to set abortion rules.
In Tennessee, the law makes performing an abortion a Class C felony, punishable for up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 for anyone who performs one. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. Instead of containing an exception to the law for abortions necessary to spare the life of, or grave harm to, a pregnant patient, the law says doctors may use those circumstances as an affirmative defense in a criminal trial.
All Tennessee abortion clinics have ceased offering the procedure; women seeking abortions must travel out of state. And doctors say they fear they will be prosecuted for providing life-saving abortions.
The signers of the paid ad are individuals, not the hospitals that employ them. Hospitals have declined to answer reporters’ questions about how they will comply with the law and whether they are permitting any life-saving abortions to be performed at their facilities.
“We are doing the heavy lifting ourselves—and that means funding the effort ourselves, as well,” said Dr. Amy Gordon Bono, a Nashville physician.
The letter was initiated by Dr. Nikki Zite, a Knoxville OB-GYN, Dr. Heather Maune, a Nashville OB-GYN, and Dr. Jessica Rosen, a Nashville emergency medicine physician, a news release said.
“This letter quickly gained support from so many colleagues because healthcare workers don’t want a ban without exceptions,” Dr. Zite said. “Medical professionals understand that there are situations, often heartbreaking, when ending a pregnancy is necessary. People don’t want physicians delaying care because they fear being criminalized.”
Organizers are working to next run the ad in the Tennessean online, Dr. Bono said.
The letter does not include specific recommendations for whether the law should be amended or overturned, but notes the law, as it is written now, could criminalize routine and urgent medical procedures, including tubal pregnancies, serious infections or cancers during pregnancy and miscarriage care.
Full text of the letter:
As medical professionals from across Tennessee, we call on our legislature to reconsider the “trigger law,” which bans abortion without exception and criminalizes physicians for providing lifesaving care.
This law makes ending any pregnancy a felony offense, even when the pregnancy cannot survive to viability and threatens the life of the mother. This impacts women experiencing miscarriages, tubal pregnancies, or even serious infections or cancers during pregnancy.
Tennesseans should have the right to make personal health care decisions with the assistance of their doctors and healthcare team – without the intrusion of politicians. This law puts the government in charge of deciding which healthcare options are available to patients, setting a dangerous precedent that violates the sacred physician-patient relationship. And because it includes zero exceptions – not for rape, incest, fetal anomaly, or even to protect the mother’s life – it forces health care providers to balance appropriate medical care with the risk of criminal prosecution.
We stand united in support of Tennesseans to make their own medical decisions including abortion care, and we affirm the position of all relevant national societies, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Medical Association in their opposition of this dangerous legislation.
This story originally published in Tennessee Lookout, part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.
