Tennessee is one of the few states that has banned abortion with no exceptions. The law has what’s known as an “affirmative defense” if a doctor performs an abortion because the pregnant person’s life was in danger.
The newly elected Southern Baptist Convention president, Bart Barber, says that’s not enough.
Since his election in June, the Texas pastor has regularly taken to Twitter in sharing his views and trying to sway other believers. He calls “abortion abolitionists” a “fringe” group of Southern Baptists.
If you ask an abortion abolitionist to protect a woman from being prosecuted for having her life saved from an ectopic pregnancy, he'll be glad to put that sentiment into a tweet.
He just won't put it into his proposed law.
— Bart Barber (@bartbarber) September 16, 2022
In an interview with WPLN News, Barber says pregnant people would likely be willing to bear the legal risk if their life was in danger, but not the doctor.
“How many times are they going to go to court and wind up having to defend themselves by showing that the mother’s life was in danger before they just say, ‘This is too risky. It’s too expensive, and I’m just not going to perform procedures like this anymore’? Women are really in trouble if they can’t find anyone who will perform a procedure in order for them to live,” he says.
Tennessee doctors have already run into murky situations under the new trigger ban, providing abortions and fearing legal repercussions. No one has been prosecuted under the law, but Barber says “the prosecution can’t push the burden of proof onto the defendant.”
Barber has cheered the overturning of Roe v. Wade as a victory ordained by God. But he has also found himself reining in vocal church members pushing to go even further, punishing those who have an abortion.
Barber also wants to protect any pregnant person from prosecution, but his exceptions stop there. He says rape and incest do not justify, in his view, taking away a life.
On adding an exception to abortion bans like Tennessee’s, Barber says he’s received “enthusiastic support” from anti-abortion lawmakers. But so far, Tennessee Republicans have been silent on revisiting the state’s strict abortion ban.
Since broadcasting parts of this interview with Barber on Wednesday morning, he has since said on Twitter that he has taken a closer look at Tennessee’s abortion ban. And he now says that the “affirmative defense” is “reasonable.”
Update: This story has been updated to include Barber’s statements on Twitter following the airing of our original report.
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