Governor Bill Haslam says he wants to find out more about a bill that would make public more details concerning abortions. The proposal would require the state health department to publish the names of doctors who perform abortions.
A Planned Parenthood official says the bill could expose doctors to intimidation or even violence. Critics also say it could help identify women who receive abortions in rural areas, because it would release details like age, race, education, marital status and how many children they have.
Governor Haslam isn’t sure he buys that argument:
“I don’t know enough about the statistics to know if once you get the demographics in a small town can you go back and do the math to figure out who that is, I don’t know enough to know if that’s a real fear yet.”
Haslam says he also wants to hear from Health Department officials about why they don’t currently release such information.
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