Providing abortions in Tennessee is now a felony thanks to the state-Republican-led law that took effect Thursday with critics calling the law “dangerous” and a government overreach.
The new law, the so-called Human Life Protection Act, was passed in 2019 just in case the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturned the landmark Roe. v. Wade decision that gave federal protection for abortions across the country. The reversal of the ruling earlier this summer allowed the Tennessee abortion ban to go into effect after 30 days.
The 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.” Should an abortion be performed illegally here, doctors and healthcare workers would be held responsible, not the pregnant woman.
Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi (PPTNM) was forced to stop abortion services completely on June 27th, said Ashley Coffield, the group’s CEO, in a news conference this week, as the state was under a six-week ban at the time. She said the law will make “doctors second-guess their medical training and expertise when choosing a treatment plan or risk a felony of criminal conviction” and that “now lawyers and hospital administrators will be weighing in on life-or-death scenarios.”
“Politicians in Tennessee intentionally created this climate of chaos, confusion, and devastation for people who become pregnant. Banning abortion doesn’t stop people from needing abortion,” Coffield said. “It only puts more peoples’ lives in danger. Governor [Bill] Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly want to control what we can and cannot do with our bodies at Planned Parenthood. We believe that you and only you should control your personal medical decisions and we will keep fighting for every person to regain that right here at home, no matter what.”
PPTNM is now focusing on its patients, directing them to abortion providers in other states. Through this patient navigation service, the group is also helping patients travel to other states and helping them to pay for the trip with gas cards, hotel vouchers, and more.
Tennessee Democrats sounded off on the new law Thursday, rebuking the move, calling abortion a “moral and personal issue” unfit for government interference, and stating “our caucuses are committed to reproductive freedom.”
“This government mandate on reproductive healthcare endangers the lives of women during a crisis pregnancy and gives rapists a greater right to choose the mother of their child than a woman has to control her own future,” reads a joint statement from state Senate Democratic caucus chairwoman Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis), House Minority Leader Rep. Karen Camper (D-Memphis), and House Democratic caucus chairman Rep. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville). “There should be clear protections for mothers if their life and health are in danger, and a victim of rape should not be victimized twice.
“Pregnancy is no place for big government. Choosing to start a family is a moral and a personal issue. Women should be trusted to start a family when they’re ready — without interference from the government.”
Senate minority leader Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) called the ban “extreme” and said “our already high rates of infant and maternal deaths will go up. It’s not pro-life, pro-baby, or pro-mom.”
