Before the overturning of Roe, as early as 2019, our own TN State legislature was preparing to criminalize women’s right to legal safe abortion.
Mary Littleton co-sponsored Tennessee’s Trigger Law and the Heartbeat Law.
The threat of withholding medical treatment from pregnant women is inhumane. Families, women, and physicians are being criminalized by our leaders when seeking life-saving medical care. Restricting reproductive healthcare is exactly opposite of what a majority of our voting citizens want. Banning contraception is a very real threat this year. (See Bills)
These local and national news articles, describe the hurt, harm and burden that these intentionally designed bills have done to frighten and deter our medical professionals and punish women who need and deserve safe medical care.
Tennessee Lookout, Jan. 30, 2024, by Dr. Katrina Green, a board certified emergency physician who practices in Nashville and Lawrenceburg
Tennessee has high maternal mortality rates and these rates are getting worse. According to the Kaiser Foundation, Tennessee ranks No. 3 in the nation for maternal mortality, a number that is as shocking as it is unsurprising: Tennessee is also one of the 10 states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid. Our high infant mortality rates are also going up, again, not surprising when our state is forcing pregnant people to carry fetuses with fatal anomalies to term. ... last week. HB1895, sponsored by Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, ... would impose both criminal and civil penalties on anyone other than biological parents or guardians who take a pregnant minor out of state for abortion care. Zachary claims to want to protect children, but his bill places children who have been sexually abused at further risk.
Tennessee Lookout, April 11, 2024, by Anita Wadhwani
Senate Republicans advanced a bill Wednesday that creates the new crime of “abortion trafficking” in Tennessee, subjecting any adult who helps a minor obtain an abortion without parental consent to mandatory jail time and potential civil lawsuits for the wrongful death of a fetus. The bill passed 26-3 over forceful objections by Democrats who argued the measure’s ambiguous language could ensnare any trusted adult a pregnant minor turns to for “honest conversations” about their pregnancy, including a pastor, grandmother or step-parent. Democrats also blasted the bill’s potential impact on incest victims, who could be forced to seek written permission from an offending parent, or the parent who failed to protect them from sexual abuse, before accessing an abortion.
“Between the woman and her doctor”: TN plantiff and now candidate for the TN State House of Representatives District 75, Allie Phillips (right) speaks out on the harm of the state’s abortion ban
Interview on MSNBC -- https://www.msnbc.com/katy-tur/watch/-between-the-woman-and-her-doctor-tennessee-plaintiff-speaks-out-on-harm-of-state-s-abortion-ban-208341061676
Missouri Independent, Feb. 28, 2024, Allie Phillips and others testify before Congress
Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung, a board certified OB-GYN and a maternal fetal medicine specialist, told senators that she felt she had to leave Tennessee after that state instituted stringent restrictions on abortion. She now practices in Colorado. Requiring pregnant people, including those with complex diagnoses, to stay pregnant is “exceptionally dangerous given the state of maternal morbidity and mortality in this country,” she testified. “Studies have shown us that people who are denied an abortion are more likely to fall into poverty, increase their amount of debt and generally have worse financial security for years following their abortion denial,” Zahedi-Spung said.
American Civil Liberties Union urges TN governor Lee to veto the abortion travel ban bill
https://www.aclu-tn.org/en/press-releases/aclu-tn-urges-governor-veto-abortion-travel-ban-bill
When abortion is restricted or banned, the impact of these bans falls hardest on those already facing unequal barriers to health care, especially young people, people with limited incomes, LGBTQ+ people, and Black and Brown people. Although most teenagers who seek abortion care involve their parents in the decision, SB 1971/HB 1895 does not account for complicated family situations that may make seeking parental consent for an abortion unsafe or even impossible. This bill provides no consideration for pregnant teens in abusive family environments where disclosing pregnancy status may create a risk of physical or psychological harm, nor does it consider situations where a minor’s parent is absent or estranged to the point where obtaining notarized consent is not possible. These are not hypothetical scenarios but are the harrowing realities of many pregnant young people across this state.
Abortion pill
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee will soon strictly regulate the dispensing of abortion pills, including imposing harsh penalties on doctors who violate them, under legislation recently signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee. The measure, which Lee signed on Thursday, will go into effect Jan. 1, 2023. Once enacted, a medical clinician will be required to be physically present when abortion pills are administered to a patient even though federal regulations now allow mail delivery nationwide.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court announced Wednesday it will hear oral arguments and decide whether broad access to the abortion pill can remain legal across the United States. The justices’ decision to hear the case this term will put abortion access and the politics that comes with it back in front of the nation’s highest court just before voters head to the polls for the 2024 presidential election.
The drug at the center of the case, mifepristone, is used in more than half of pregnancy terminations within the United States as part of a two-pharmaceutical regimen that includes misoprostol as the second medication. Both are also used in miscarriage treatment. Patients’ ability to access mifepristone cannot change until the Supreme Court issues its ruling, under an order the court put out earlier this year.
Articles about crisis pregnancy clinics:
Tennessee Lookout, Oct. 4, 2022, by Dulce Torres Guzman
https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/10/04/crisis-pregnancy-centers-steer-women-away-from-abortion/
While crisis pregnancy centers might offer needed support to some during an unplanned pregnancy, for others the centers use deceitful tactics to convince women to keep their pregnancies, and often by using the lure of abortion. Reproductive rights advocates argue the centers not only use questionable means to fulfill an agenda but they have been aided by the state, which contributes hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to their operations.
The Tennessean, April, 19, 2024, by Melissa Brown
Earlier this year, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee proposed $3 million for a maternal health pilot program, aimed at addressing a pressing need to improve health outcomes for expectant mothers in a state ranked third worst in the country on maternal mortality issues. Now, the General Assembly will redirect that grant money to crisis pregnancy centers, Republican-lauded anti-abortion organizations that are unregulated by state health standards and may not offer comprehensive health services.
Senate Democratic Caucus Chair London Lamar, D-Memphis, sharply criticized the budget decision to redirect the funds. Lamar, who has been open about her own maternal health crisis during her first pregnancy, has long championed increased maternal health interventions to better safeguard expectant and new mothers. Lamar said she was infuriated by the plan to put more funds toward "programs that have shown no data that they actually work."
"What's even more dangerous is the funding was supposed to fill gaps in areas where they didn't have access to a doctor," Lamar said. "This is anti-life, this is not pro-life legislation. Every mother should be up in arms about the state once again neglecting to fund necessary health care services for moms and babies."
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