Tennessee's abortion ban has become controversial as lawmakers in several GOP-led states move to make abortion restrictions tougher.
Tennessee legislators aimed to introduce slight exceptions to the state's rigid abortion ban that mandates doctors to demonstrate in court that they were safeguarding a woman's life during an abortion.
However, a significant anti-abortion organization's intervention led the lawmakers to adopt a more stringent legal requirement that barely made any progress.
Anti-abortion groups plan to intensify their efforts post-Roe v. Wade
According to ABC, Kelsey Pritchard, a member of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America's state affairs staff, said that anti-abortion groups were motivated by the losses in the ballot measures, and they have been trying to communicate their message more powerfully.
She expressed that it was a realization of how much effort they needed to put in.
The Tennessee Legislature is now considering a watered-down proposal that removes the affirmative defense language but still doesn't provide access to abortions in the cases of lethal fetal anomalies and medically futile pregnancies.
The new exemption, physicians warned, would not do much to ease patients' concerns about the possibility of being prosecuted.
Democratic Senator London Lamar, who faced her own near-fatal pregnancy loss a few years ago, commented that the newly amended bill only permits abortion when a woman's life is in grave danger.
Mary Ziegler, a legal historian at the University of California, Davis School of Law, observed that pro-life organizations are preparing for a slow increase in opposition to abortion rights.
She added that as time passes after Roe v. Wade, people may become more receptive to increasingly restrictive bans.
Tennessee's current ban is one of the strictest, requiring doctors to prove in court that abortion was medically necessary rather than allowing exceptions for saving the woman's life.
As per Axios, the bill sponsor in the House, Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes, asserted that the amended bill guarantees that doctors can safeguard the lives of mothers and infants.
However, Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson opposed the bill, claiming that it fails to provide adequate protection to patients and physicians and still places them in the dilemma of navigating vague legal language while making critical healthcare decisions.
The impact of Tennessee's abortion ban on women's health
The lack of exceptions for medically futile pregnancies and lethal fetal anomalies means that some women may be forced to terminate a pregnancy even if the fetus has a fatal diagnosis.
According to the Guardian, this can be devastating for families who must endure the emotional and physical toll of a pregnancy that they know will end in stillbirth or the death of their infant shortly after birth.
Doctors again have warned that the new exemption will do little to relieve worries about being prosecuted.
This could result in doctors hesitating to perform life-saving procedures, even if the woman's life is in danger.
In conclusion, Tennessee's stringent abortion ban reflects the nationwide trend of hardline restrictions on abortion following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Lawmakers in many states are digging in their heels, either to make abortion restrictions more challenging or to protect access to abortion for their constituents.
As anti-abortion groups anticipate a gradual erosion of support for abortion rights, it remains to be seen how far the trend toward hardline abortion restrictions will go.
The effects of these policies on women's health and reproductive rights will continue to be debated and discussed in the post-Roe v. Wade era.
