Abortions in Tennessee are screeching to a halt due to legal uncertainty; AG files motion to enact 6-week ban sooner

Updated at 4:50 p.m.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery is moving quickly to try and limit abortions after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Slatery has already asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift an injunction on the 2020 6-week abortion ban that has never been enforced. The 85-page emergency motion filed this morning requests action be taken immediately. The court gave plaintiffs, including Planned Parenthood, until Monday to respond.

More: Read the emergency motion here.

“Today’s decision restores to the states the authority to regulate and prohibit abortion,” Slatery said at a press conference Friday afternoon.

Slatery says he’s also working to notify the Tennessee Code Commission of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that will trigger the state’s total abortion ban in 30 days. Once in effect, it would outlaw all abortions except those that endanger the patient.

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi says in a statement that the abortion provider expects a federal appeals court to lift the injunction first, allowing the 6-week ban to take effect. Because of the uncertainty, Planned Parenthood clinics are trying to see patients in Memphis and Nashville through the weekend, but may not be able to at all after that.

“We will do everything we legally can to help patients in our region access abortion without the shame and overwhelming hurdles forced by this decision,” PPTNM CEO Ashley Coffield said in a statement. 

Tennessee is likely to see a nearly total ban on abortion in about 30 days, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion ending federal protections for abortion on Friday, June 24. What’s next for Tennessee is laid out in a 2019 law known as the “Human Life Protection Act.”

Tennessee is one of more than two dozen states that have enacted so-called “trigger laws” that ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned or have old abortion bans that can now go into effect.

The final version of the 2019 law does include one formality: It requires the Tennessee attorney general, currently Republican Herbert Slatery, to opine that the trigger law has been triggered — a point that Democrats, in 2019, said might constitute an inappropriate delegation of the legislature’s law-making authority. That could lead to litigation that might delay the trigger law’s implementation.

Tennessee’s law has limited exceptions. It allows abortions to preserve the life and health of the mother, but it specifically excludes any burden on mental health. There is no exception for rape or incest, which were often included in previous attempts to ban abortions. Tennessee’s ban also makes no allowance for abortions in the very first few weeks of pregnancy, including those induced through medication.

The person receiving an abortion would not be subject to prosecution. Instead the person performing the procedure or prescribing the medication would be open to criminal charges — though some local prosecutors, including Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk, have suggested they will not enforce the law. An abortion could result in a Class C felony, including prison time and a fine of up to $10,000.

Legal challenges to the law are certain to be filed by groups like Planned Parenthood, though abortion providers have also been working on contingency plans to help patients travel to more abortion-friendly states.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.