Tag: abortion

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Tennessee Still Feeling Effects Of Dobbs Decision Two Years Later

More than 10,000 women have left Tennessee to receive abortion care in the two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, according to Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. (PPTNM).

The health care group marked the anniversary of the decision with a news conference Monday. PPTNM health centers now provide patient navigation services to those in Tennessee and Mississippi who need to travel out of state for abortion care. The group has provided assistance to over 800 patients.

Ashley Coffield, the group’s CEO, said it’s “dangerous” to be pregnant in Tennessee.

“Two years after the Dobbs decision allowed our state’s abortion ban to take effect Tennessee is in a state of crisis,” Coffield said. “It is dangerous to be pregnant here.”

“We are living without a basic freedom and access to life-saving care that we never thought would go away, and people are afraid,” Coffield added. “The attacks on reproductive rights have not stopped.”

Seven women and two providers are suing the state because they had to receive the procedure elsewhere, Cofield said.

The Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation this year that makes it a criminal offense for adults to help minors access abortion care out of state. The legislation also allows for another person to sue the person found guilty of “abortion trafficking” for the death of the unborn child, and is set to go into effect on July 1.

Planned Parenthood said they are still able to help minors with the consent of an adult through their Planned Parenthood Direct service where they can provide birth control and contraceptives through tele-health.

The organization is also able to provide care at a reduced cost thanks to their Title X services. In 2023 PPTNM was awarded $3.9 million to be used over the next three years. The funds came from the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood and given so PPTNM could continue providing free care to patients in need after it was announced in April that the state of Tennessee was no longer eligible for Title X funding. This was due to the state’s inability to provide “abortion referrals upon client request.”

Tennessee lawmakers marked the anniversary, too. Senate Democratic Caucus members Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis), Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis), Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville), Sen. Sara Kyle (D-Memphis) and Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) issued a joint statement condemning Tennessee’s restrictions.

“None of us ever thought we would live in an America where women have fewer rights than our mothers and grandmothers or that politicians would use the power of the government to decide when or if we grow our family,” the statement said.

The lawmakers also said they are “more determined than ever to restore this basic freedom to every woman in Tennessee.”

PPTNM’s Coffield said that her group anticipates restrictions on reproductive rights “can get worse,” yet they are committed to keeping their doors open for people who need access to abortion care through their navigation services.

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ruling made in the landmark case, Roe v. Wade, which protected a woman’s right to choose an abortion. A day after the decision, a Tennessee law went into effect that made providing abortions a felony. The Human Life Protection Act “was passed in 2019 just in case the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade.”

At the time of its passage, the law did not allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, or any fetal abnormality that could prove fatal to the baby. The law only allowed 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.”

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Proposed Legislation Makes Taking A Minor Out Of State For Abortion Care A Felony

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

Taking a minor out of the state of Tennessee for abortion care could soon be classified as a Class C felony.

This week, Rep. Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), introduced HB 1895, which would prohibit taking minors to another state for a medical abortion. The bill proposes that this act be defined as “abortion trafficking.” 

The legislation also allows for another person to sue the person found guilty of “abortion trafficking” for the death of the unborn child.

“Abortion – As introduced, creates the criminal offense of abortion trafficking of a minor,” reads the summary of the bill. “Provides for a civil action against a person committing the offense of abortion trafficking of a minor for the wrongful death of an unborn child that was aborted.”

If passed, those found guilty could face three to 15 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.

In August 2022, providing abortions became a felony in Tennessee, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. Tennessee’s Human Life Protection Act, which was initially passed in 2019, does not allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, or any fetal abnormality that could prove fatal to the baby. Clinics such as Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi were forced to stop abortion services completely.

As abortion providers in the state stopped services, many women began to consider traveling out of state for abortions. Choices-Center for Reproductive Health, opened a clinic in Carbondale, Illinois. According to the clinic, they have provided close to 3,800 abortions since the Dobbs decision.

In November of last year Planned Parenthood of North Mississippi in Tennessee announced that through October of 2023, they had “navigated 632 patients out of state for abortion services and have spent $97,429 on their travel expenses.”

The bill has already drawn heavy criticism by multiple abortion advocates, as well as on social media.

Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi said that this legislation is “especially dangerous for vulnerable minors living in abusive situations.”

“Most minors involve a parent in their decision to get an abortion. But for young people living in abusive households, disclosing sexual activity or pregnancy can trigger physical or emotional abuse, including direct physical or sexual violence, or being thrown out of the home,” said Coffield. “This bill makes criminals out of trusted adults, including other family members, who can help in these circumstances.”

An X [formerly Twitter] user by the name @lgbtwerewolves took to the platform to call the bill “unthinkably evil” and “disgusting.”

“I am imagining the trauma and physical pain a kid has to go through to get to a point of needing abortion care and threatening family members helping them seek care with class c felonies is just adding emotional torture,” the user wrote.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Planned Parenthood Celebrates Launch of Title X Services and More in Inaugural Roundup

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi (PPTNM) launched its Title X services on Wednesday, November 29th, and has already served 129 people.

Ashley Coffield, CEO of PPTNM, said these services are meant to provide “free and low-cost family planning services such as birth control, STI testing and treatment, wellness exams, gender-affirming care, and more.”

PPTNM was awarded $3.9 million to be used over the next three years. According to Planned Parenthood Action Fund, this is part of a grant that was issued by Virginia League for Planned Parenthood through a “sub-grant.”

The funds were awarded so PPTNM could continue providing free care to patients in need after it was announced in April that the state of Tennessee was no longer eligible for Title X funding. This was due to the state’s inability to provide “abortion referrals upon client request.”

PPTNM is still dedicated to giving patients the “abortion care they deserve,” even with the barriers the state has imposed.

“We’re navigating patients out of state by arranging their logistics, giving them money for travel, and helping them with the cost of their services,” said Coffield “Through October, we have navigated 632 patients out of state for abortion services and have spent $97,429 on their travel expenses.”

The organization celebrated this milestone along with other 2023 accomplishments during its inaugural event “The Talk,” hosted on November 30th via Zoom.

Coffield was joined by PPTNM’s senior manager of education Victoria Freeland and Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood’s (TAPP) executive director Francie Hunt, who were present to provide updates in healthcare, education, and more. Officials also previewed some of the organization’s goals for 2024.

Aimee Lewis, vice president of external affairs and chief development officer of PPTNM, called 2023 a “transformational year” for the organization. 

The organization celebrated healthcare wins such as the launch of its mobile health unit in Knoxville, opened to “restore access to in-person reproductive healthcare” for residents in East Tennessee. The original branch was burned down in 2022 and is set to reopen in summer of 2024.

The group has also launched vasectomy services in Memphis and Nashville in order to give men the ability to “control their reproductive futures.”

Planned Parenthood also celebrated the launch of its telehealth app, PP Direct. According to Coffield, this app gives anyone in Tennessee direct access to birth control, UTI treatment, emergency contraceptives, and more. Users can also talk to a Planned Parenthood provider, and even have their birth control delivered to their house.

“We have so far provided services to people in 85 of the 95 counties in Tennessee with PP Direct,” said Coffield.

In addition to expanding telehealth and in-person services, the organization has also chosen to include selected primary care services in their offerings. According to Coffield, if a person came to PPTNM looking for birth control, they also have the option to be treated for non-reproductive treatment such as hypertension.

“Knowing that Planned Parenthood may be the only healthcare provider a patient sees in a year, our health centers have added selected primary care services to address the systemic issues patients face, and the harms those issues can cause their bodies,” said Coffield. “We are a safety net for many patients, and we are expanding our services to meet their needs.”

Coffield thanked PPTNM’s supporters for their generosity as they helped to raise over $8.8 million for fiscal year 2023 (July 2022-June 2023.)

Looking ahead, the organization will be moving toward electronic medical records in 2024, and will also be expanding the range of services offered. It is also currently conducting a statewide “community needs assessment,” which, Freeland explained, allows the organization to “establish baseline information” in order to “tailor education programs and mutual aid distribution.”

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Tennessee Leads Nation in Arresting and Punishing Pregnant Women

Photo by niu niu on Unsplash

Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina lead the nation in arresting and criminally punishing women for allegedly posing a danger to their fetuses, according to a report released by advocacy group Pregnancy Justice.

Nationwide, nearly 1,400 people were arrested or subject to disparate bail, sentencing, and probation for conduct related to their pregnancies between 2005 and the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June 2022 dismantling abortion rights, the report found. The vast majority were poor, white women, though poor Black women were disproportionately represented.

Tennessee accounted for 131 of those cases.

“Pregnant people have been criminalized at an accelerating rate for actions that would not be illegal but for a person’s pregnancy,” Lourdes Rivera, president of Pregnancy Justice, told reporters on Tuesday.

The report shows a substantial increase in the number of people being charged for crimes tied to pregnancy. In 2013, Pregnancy Justice released a report that found that law enforcement had targeted 413 pregnant people between 1973 — which marked the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion — and 2005. The new findings show those instances have tripled.

When we talk about back alley or secret abortions, that’s not the real risk to people’s lives.

– Nina Gurek, Healthy and Free Tennessee

Advocates pointed to two key drivers in criminalizing pregnancy: the expansion of so-called fetal rights or “personhood” laws and a more punitive approach to substance use among pregnant women — even as many states move to decriminalize drug abuse in line with evolving approaches to  addiction. The majority of criminal cases documented by Pregnancy Justice related to substance use, including marijuana, cocaine, or methamphetamines. In about one-quarter of these cases, the substance was legal: such as nicotine, alcohol, or prescription opiates.

In Tennessee, both factors hold true. Tennessee law says that “life begins at conception.” 

In 2014, Tennessee also became the first state in the nation to enact a “fetal assault law.” It allowed women to be prosecuted for drug use during pregnancy. The measure was criticized by state and national health and advocacy groups and was allowed to expire in 2016. Several efforts to reimplement the law have been introduced in the Tennessee Legislature since. 

Nina Gurek, policy director for Healthy and Free Tennessee, said that despite the law’s expiration her organization continues to hear of prosecutions involving pregnant women on child abuse or neglect charges involving legal and illegal substance use allegations.

“We know it’s still happening,” she said.

The Pregnancy Justice report warns that more people could face criminal charges or increased bonds or sentencing as states have enacted abortion bans and restrictions.

Tennessee’s strict abortion ban explicitly exempts pregnant women from prosecution for seeking abortions. But Gurek said she places no trust in the law’s protections. “When we talk about back alley or secret abortions, that’s not the real risk to people’s lives, it’s handcuffs.”

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.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Center For Reproductive Rights Sues State Over Near-Total Abortion Ban

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

The Center for Reproductive Rights has filed legal action against the state of Tennessee regarding abortion rights and the near-total ban passed by the state.

The case, Blackmon v. State of Tennessee, was filed on behalf of three women, Nicole Blackmon, Allyson Phillips, and Kaitlyn Dulong, who were “denied necessary and potentially life-saving medical care.” The suit was one of three complaints filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of patients in Idaho, Tennessee, and Oklahoma, who were” denied abortion care despite grave pregnancy complications.’

“Blackmon v. State of Tennessee challenges the limited scope of the ‘emergent medical condition’ exception to Tennessee’s total abortion ban,” said the organization. They said that Tennessee’s abortion ban endangers the lives of pregnant people, and that the medical condition exception “threatens doctors with arbitrary enforcement.”

Plaintiffs also include two obstetricians/gynecologists, Dr. Heather Maune of Nashville, and Dr. Laura Anderson of Franklin. The suit states that the medical condition exception has “put patients’ lives and doctors’ liberty and livelihoods at grave risk.”

According to Tennessee Administrative Code, chapter 1200-12-01-.14, an emergency medical condition refers to a “medical condition manifesting itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity, including severe pain, such that it could put the patient’s health in serious jeopardy, cause serious impairment to bodily function, or cause serious dysfunction of any body organ, system, or part without immediate medical attention.”

On August 25, 2022, a Tennessee law went into effect that made providing abortions a felony. 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 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.”

“Since then, pregnant people in Tennessee have suffered needless physical and emotional pain and harm, including loss of their fertility,” the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit says the following on behalf of the three women:

  • When Nicole Blackmon found out she was pregnant, she “stopped taking medication needed to treat the symptoms of her various medical conditions to avoid harming her pregnancy.” She later found out that her baby had a “lethal fetal diagnosis,” and was unable to leave Tennessee to get an abortion. Blackmon continued her pregnancy, and gave birth to a stillborn baby during her seventh month of pregnancy.
  • Allie Phillips received the news that the second child she was expecting, Miley Rose, had developed “multiple fetal diagnoses.” Phillips could not get an abortion, and found out that continuing pregnancy “would strain [her] own precarious health.” Phillips raised money through GoFundMe to go to New York for care, but “had to drive her loss far from her own home without the support of her family and friends back in Tennessee.”
  • After undergoing fertility treatments and becoming pregnant with her first child, Katy Dulong was diagnosed with cervical insufficiency. When she was told that she would “inevitably lose the pregnancy,” Dulong was “not given the medication that would have allowed her body to expel the pregnancy promptly without further risk to her own health.” Ten days later, the fetus’ body was in Dulong’s vaginal canal. The suit claims that she could have died from the “lengthy delay in receiving the care that she would have promptly received but for Tennessee’s abortion ban.”

“Abortion is necessary healthcare that is being denied under Tennessee’s abortion ban,” the suit says. “Tennessee’s abortion ban prevents pregnant people and those who may become pregnant from receiving the nationally recognized standard of care they need.”

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Camper Blasts GOP Letter Backing Pentagon Delays On Abortion

House Minority Leader Karen Camper of Memphis, photographed on Aug. 21, 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Tennessee House Minority Leader Karen Camper (D-Memphis) is criticizing state Rep. John Ragan’s (R-Oak Ridge) letter backing delays in key military appointments until the Pentagon relents on abortion policy.

Camper, who is also a Memphis mayoral candidate, issued a statement Monday saying she is “shocked by the level of vitriol and carelessness for the men and women in uniform expressed” in the letter by Ragan, an Oak Ridge Republican.

Ragan’s letter to U.S. Senators Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn, both Republicans, urges them to support Senator Tommy Tuberville in blocking appointments to top military leadership posts and also asks them to “remove wokeness” from the military.

Camper, a retired intelligence officer from the U.S. Army, contends it is “outrageous” for Ragan, a retired Air Force fighter pilot, to “insert his personal beliefs” into Pentagon policies.

I am shocked by the level of vitriol and carelessness for the men and women in uniform expressed in this letter. As a woman, as a veteran, and as a member of this General Assembly for many years, I have seen harmful and dangerous political posturing, but this is beyond the pale.

– Karen Camper, Tennessee House Miniority Leader

Ragan’s letter, sent on September 11th, backs elimination of military funding for travel and expenses for military members to obtain abortions and uses the Tennessee Constitution as support, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs to let states decide abortion care. The General Assembly outlawed abortion services, making only a narrow exception this year to deal with the health of the mother in dangerous pregnancies.

Ragan argues in his letter that military members “resent” their tax dollars going toward elective abortions “in violation of their personal religious beliefs” and anecdotally calls the Pentagon’s “arrogant directive” another form of a “worthless woke-ism.”

In addition, he claims service members perceive the military policy as part of “woke” ultimatums, such as on-base “drag queen” shows and story hours, accommodations for “transexuals,” despite religious objections, saying they are among the “onerous demands that waste resources, cripple morale, and hurt readiness.”

Camper, however, points out that Tuberville, a former football coach who has no military experience, is jeopardizing the nation’s security and military preparedness by refusing to allow nearly 300 positions to be filled, including the Marine Corps commandant position.

“Our military is at an all-time low level for recruitment. Our young people are not choosing the military as a career. It has nothing to do with ‘wokeness,’” she said in her statement.

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.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

“Shout Your Abortion” Launches I-55 Billboard Campaign

Photo Credit: Shout Your Abortion via Facebook

Shout Your Abortion (SYA), an organization with the goal of “normalizing abortion and elevating safe paths to access,” has launched a “multi-state, pro-abortion” billboard campaign, ahead of the anniversary of Tennessee’s abortion ban.

The campaign features six billboards along I-55. from Memphis to Carbondale, Illinois, which according to SYA, is a popular route for abortion seekers.

Data provided by UCLA’s School of Law’s Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy said that “between 9,277 and 18,554 more people will travel to Illinois each year for abortion care.

“Anti-abortion groups have lined I-55 with negative, guilt-based billboards shaming abortion seekers headed to Illinois, and this new campaign aims to offer support and affirmation to those traveling for care,” said SYA in a statement.

In August 2022, providing abortions became a felony, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. Tennessee’s Human Life Protection Act, which was initially passed in 2019, does not allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, or any fetal abnormality that could prove fatal to the baby. Clinics like Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi were forced to stop abortion services completely.

As abortion providers in the state stopped services, many women began to consider traveling out of state for abortions. Choices-Center for Reproductive Health, opened a clinic in Carbondale, Illinois. According to the clinic, they have provided close to 3,800 abortions since the Dobbs decision.

Amelia Bonow, co-founder and executive director of SYA, said that because abortion is banned in so much of the south, I-55 is a highway that “tens of thousands of people” will take into southern Illinois to a place like Choices.

Messages on the billboards feature pro-abortion messaging like “ABORTION IS OKAY, YOU ARE LOVED,” and “GOD’S PLAN INCLUDES ABORTION,” which are an intentional contrast to “hateful, shaming, and intentional” anti-abortion billboards.

“We were motivated by the desire to tell people that it’s okay,” said Bonow. “You may just be used to hearing this judgment and shame and hatefulness, but that is actually not the majority. The vast majority of Americans support abortion rights.”

Vanderbilt University’s 2023 Statewide Poll said 82 percent of registered voters think “abortion should be legal in Tennessee if it would prevent the death or serious health risk of the mother.”

“Support is highest among Democrats (95 percent), followed by Independents (86 percent), MAGA Republicans (74 percent) and non-MAGA Republicans (72 percent),” the poll said.

Bonow said because the anti-choice movement has been so “loud and scary,” they have terrified people who have abortions into hiding. She said that the billboard campaign is a powerful way to claim space.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Tennessee AG Asserts Right to Out-Of-State Abortion, Transgender Care Medical Records

Photo by Manny Becerra on Unsplash

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has joined Republican counterparts in 18 states in an effort to prevent the federal government from shielding the medical records of those who cross state lines to obtain legal abortion or gender-affirming care from investigations in their home state.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed a new privacy rule for certain medical records in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of abortion rights last year.

The rule would prohibit disclosure of medical records of individuals  who seek reproductive health care in a state in which the care is legal to officials or litigants in a home state in which it is not.

Under the proposed rule, the records would be shielded from law enforcement, court subpoenas and in civil lawsuits and family court proceedings.

“The proposed rule here continues the administration’s efforts to override state abortion law,” a June 16th letter from the attorneys general to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said.

The letter called the move to amend HIPAA — the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — unconstitutional, a result of “political pressure from the White House” that would interfere with states’ abilities to protect the health and safety of their citizens and to pursue evidence of criminal activity.

The existence of the letter was first reported Friday by the Mississippi Free Press.

A spokesperson for Skrmetti on Monday reiterated the letter’s assertion that the federal agency was overstepping its authority in contemplating the new privacy rule.

“HHS does not have authority to change the law in contradiction of the statute passed by Congress,” Elizabeth Lane Johnson, a spokesperson for Skrmetti, said in a statement Monday.

The rule was first proposed in April after President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing HHS to “consider ways to strengthen the protection of sensitive information related to reproductive health care services and bolster patient-provider confidentiality.”

In unveiling the proposed rule — which is winding its way through the federal government’s rule-making process — HHS Office of Civil Rights Director Melanie Fontes Rainer said it came in response to the concerns of doctors and patients who feared adverse actions against those seeking care in another state that is illegal or restricted in their own.

“Today’s proposed rule is about safeguarding this trust in the patient-provider relationship, and ensuring that when you go to the doctor, your private medical records will not be disclosed and used against you for seeking lawful care,” Fontes Rainer said. “This is a real problem we are hearing and seeing, and we developed today’s proposed rule to help address this gap and provide clarity to our health care providers and patients.”

In their letter, attorneys general pushed back against the notion that they would seek to prosecute those seeking care outside their home state, calling such a claim “fear-mongering.”

Today’s proposed rule is about safeguarding this trust in the patient-provider relationship, and ensuring that when you go to the doctor, your private medical records will not be disclosed and used against you for seeking lawful care.

– Melanie Fontes Rainer, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The letter notes that state laws criminalizing abortion consistently provide an exception for women seeking the procedure. While the HHS proposed rule does not explicitly mention transgender care, the attorneys general conclude in their letter that such care would fall under the umbrella of the plan.

Their letter outlined a hypothetical: Should officials believe an abortion provider in their home state provided an illegal abortion, falsified medical records then sent their patient for additional care out of state to cover it up, the HHS rule would bar their investigation, the letter said.

The letter also suggests the rule would bar a complete investigation into misconduct against a doctor licensed in multiple states and “could inhibit state’s investigation of child abuse and other serious crimes.”

While the letter does not specify the circumstances in which child abuse investigations would warrant out-of-state reproductive health care records, it criticizes the federal government’s “radical approach to transgender issues” and says the “administration may intend to use the proposed rule to obstruct state laws concerning experimental gender-transition procedures for minors.”

Download the letter here.

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.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Planned Parenthood Expects ‘More Criminalization’ One Year After Dobbs Decision

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

As the one-year anniversary of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization approaches on Saturday, June 24th, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi consider it to be “more dangerous and more deadly to be pregnant in Tennessee.”

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court decided to overturn the decision made in the landmark case, Roe v. Wade, which protected a woman’s right to choose an abortion. On August 25, 2022, a Tennessee law went into effect that made providing abortions a felony. As the Memphis Flyer 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.” 

At the time of its passage, the law did not allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, or any fetal abnormality that could prove fatal to the baby. The law only allowed 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.”

In the most recent legislative session, exceptions were made for ectopic and molar pregnancies. The Tennessee General Assembly declared that the termination of a pregnancy for these purposes does not “constitute criminal abortion.” While this amendment expanded instances for which abortions are allowed, organizations such as Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood are still against the bill.

“Anything that allows more access to abortion and reproductive health care is vital, but anything short of complete support for bodily autonomy and abortion rights stigmatizes abortions, particularly for our most disenfranchised communities,” said a statement on the organization’s website.

The “Tennessee Abortion-Inducing Drug Risk Protocol Act” was passed on May 9, 2022, and took effect on January 1, 2023, which required all “abortion inducing drugs,” to be provided only by qualified physicians in medical facilities. While the law went into effect around the same time that the Food and Drug administration expanded access to these drugs, abortion is still illegal in the state of Tennessee. It is, however, still legal to leave the state for an abortion. Currently, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi uses a Patient Navigation team, to help patients understand their options in these instances.

“We are navigating patients out of state for abortion care. We’re helping them with logistics. We’re giving them resources for travel. We’re helping them pay for the services when they get there,” said Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, in a video released ahead of the anniversary of the Dobbs decision.

While making strides to expand access and resources, the organization also said that it expects “more criminalization and more intimidation going forward.”

“State lawmakers have already advocated and strategized around ways to ban contraceptives, IVF treatments and restrict interstate travel for abortion. It is a scary time,” said Planned Parenthood in a statement.”

HB1084, sponsored by Representative Jesse Chism (D-Memphis) and Senator Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis), failed in the legislative session this year. This bill proposed that the offenses related to “criminal abortions,” should not include contraceptives such as hormonal birth control, emergency contraceptives, and intrauterine devices.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Abortion Bills Fall, Stall In Tennessee General Assembly

The Tennessee Senate Chambers. (Photo: John Partipilo)

A piece of legislation designed to stop the “criminalization” of doctors could be in trouble after several abortion-related bills went down in flames this week.

State Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes delayed a bill Wednesday for three weeks that would remove the “affirmative defense” requirement for doctors who provide abortions for women going through deadly pregnancies.

Helton-Haynes, an East Ridge Republican, said she believes she has enough votes to pass the bill out of the House Health Committee but that she wants to wait until the Senate Judiciary Committee takes it up. The House could pass its own version of the bill this session and allow the Senate to take up the matter again next year if it fails to progress there.

The decision to postpone House Bill 883 comes a day after Sen. Richard Briggs, sponsor of Senate Bill 745, delayed consideration of his bill in the Judiciary Committee in an effort to line up more votes. Briggs wants colleagues to get advice from Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti who, he said, told him it would be easier to defend his bill in court than the state’s “trigger” law, which bans abortions.

Lawmakers still haven’t tried to place an amendment on the bill that would change wording such as the “good-faith judgment” of physicians to “reasonable” judgment, which critics say could increase legal exposure to medical providers who might be charged with a felony for performing an abortion to save the woman or prevent a debilitating illness.

Pushing any bill that appears to soften the state’s anti-abortion law through the Senate Judiciary Committee will be a tough task.

The Republican-dominated panel killed legislation Tuesday by Democratic Sen. Raumesh Akbari that would ensure birth control and contraceptives are not included in the state’s abortion law, and another bill by Democratic Sen. London Lamar that would renew abortion rights in the state. Tennessee’s “trigger” law took effect banning abortions in August 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

“This bill is about giving women the opportunity to choose their own life,” said Lamar of Memphis. She urged Republicans to vote for it in spite of threats by Tennessee Right to Life to negatively score lawmakers who voted for the legislation in a House subcommittee.

Both measures failed 7-2, but the committee voted in favor of legislation by Republican Sen. Joey Hensley, of Hohenwald, that prohibits city and county governments from assisting with abortions, such as paying for women to travel to other states for the procedure.

Lamar insisted that hospitals that receive county funding could lose that financial help for providing an abortion for an ectopic pregnancy. But Hensley responded that the bill simply stops local governments from paying for women’s out-of-state abortions.

Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, also removed his own bill from consideration in the committee after he saw it didn’t have enough support to pass. It would have created exceptions for rape and incest in the state’s anti-abortion law.

Democrats expressed frustration Wednesday that Republicans, who hold a supermajority in the legislature, could not move what they consider the “bare minimum” of legislation to roll back the abortion law.

“Two groups are put in dire circumstances without this bill, that is doctors and women, and we are losing, even before all of this plays out, doctors here in the state of Tennessee,” said state Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga. 

Lamar, who lost a child at birth, called the Republican supermajority’s refusal to change the abortion law an “abomination.” She contends they are “lacking courage” because of the threats of Tennessee Right to Life, even though polls show 60 percent of Tennesseans support abortion rights.

Meanwhile, the state’s foster care system will be flooded with children as it struggles to care for those in its custody, she pointed out.

Gov. Bill Lee put $100 million in his budget plan for crisis pregnancy centers, one of which he supports by serving on its board. Lamar called those facilities for forcing women to give birth.

“I hope they have a funeral fund for all the women that’s going to be dropping over dead because doctors can’t save the lives of women in this state because they failed to at least do good public policy,” Lamar 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.