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In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe V. Wade, you’ll find the latest updates about changing Tennessee abortion laws in our live blog, below.
For details on how Tennessee law is changing, including the reproductive health options that remain, check out our explainer.
A growing number of progressive candidates are choosing to tell their own abortion stories. And they’re doing so more frequently in states that banned abortion after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
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It could soon be a crime to help Tennessee teenagers get an abortion. A bill passed out of the Senate and has one vote left in the House. Like many abortion policies, vague wording leaves a lot open to interpretation.
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In Republican-led states across the U.S., conservative legislators are refusing to reevaluate abortion bans — even as doctors and patients insist the laws’ exceptions are dangerously unclear, resulting in denied treatment to some pregnant women in need.
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As Tennessee’s abortion restrictions continue to evolve, there is growing concern about how much privacy the law gives to patients who travel from this state to clinics where abortion is unrestricted, like the one in Carbondale, Illinois.
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Here & Now’s Deepa Fernandes speaks with Allie Phillips, who is running for a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives after she was impacted by the state’s abortion restrictions. She’s running for Tennessee’s 75th district, northwest of Nashville.
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Laws on abortion are out of step with public opinion. One Republican legislator in Tennessee is working to establish exceptions to his state’s strict abortion laws, but he faces a tough battle.
Continue ReadingTennessee has adopted narrow exceptions to the state’s abortion ban. Gov. Bill Lee signed the legislation into law Friday, which will allow doctors to perform an abortion if it saves the life of the patient. The law doesn’t make exceptions for rape or incest.
But physician advocacy groups say the law doesn’t do enough to protect doctors in a state where the maternal mortality rate is already high.
Memphis state Sen. London Lamar argued for the law during session. She said that she knows what it’s like to have health complications because of pregnancy.
“And I’m thankful that, at that time, the doctor was able to terminate that pregnancy, so I wouldn’t have died,” Lamar said. “And I’m telling you, as your own colleague, as your own niece, baby girl, I love you all. It is real, not only for me, but for women all across the state — if you look at our maternal mortality and morbidity stats here in this state.”
2021 saw a significant rise in people dying while pregnant or soon after giving birth, according to a recent report. The rate is especially acute for Black women, who are 2.5 times more likely to die than white women.
In a statement, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee says that the law does “less than nothing” for reproductive rights in the state.
Lawmakers say that doctors can provide abortion services for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies.
Tennessee’s Senate has passed narrow exceptions to the state’s abortion ban, which is among the strictest in the country. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk.
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A Tennessee mother wanted to end her high-risk pregnancy, but doctors feared prosecution.
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Earlier this year, right before Roe v. Wade was overturned, WPLN profiled two sisters who became pregnant at young ages. One had an abortion, one didn’t — and their lives took different paths.
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