A bill that allows doctors to perform abortions that include “fatal fetal abnormalities,” failed in the Tennessee Legislature, forcing lawmakers to settle the risks women must face to end their pregnancy.
Senate Bill 1425 The sponsorship of Sen. Richard Briggs, a Knoxville Republican, was rejected last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee, circumventing efforts to pass laws that allow doctors to perform abortions of “fatal fetal abnormalities” without the threat of being called for a “criminal abortion.” Signal Mountain Republican Rep. Ester Helton Hines sponsored the House edition of the bill to provide a new exception to abortion after Congress banned the proceedings three years ago.
Instead, lawmakers support it Senate Bill 1004expands the condition in which a woman may be at substantial risk of death or irreversible disability, allowing her to have an abortion. I plan to go to the Senate floor for consideration.
The House Health Committee approved the version Tuesday with a 15-6 vote. Brian Terry, the committee chair that sponsored the bill, did not offer lawmakers a new exception to abortion, but assured that they listed conditions that doctors can use to determine whether women should end dangerous pregnancy.
Terry, an anesthesiologist at Murfreesboro, told her colleagues that doctors can use definitions to make a diagnosis and determine whether abortion is medically necessary to save the mother’s life. Every effort must be made to save the baby in line with the state abortion laws.
The Tennessee Medical Association will be holding a Blackmon V in October 2024. Following the Tennessee ruling, it supported the “fatal fetal abnormality” bill. The court also outlined the types of fatal fetal diagnosis that can qualify under the sentence after a woman who had to leave the state for abortion proceedings.
The bill sponsored by Republicans Briggs and Terry gives a clear definition of how long a woman can have an abortion, such as “inevitable abortion,” a type of miscarriage in which the uterus is materialized. They also include medically diagnosed conditions that complicate pregnancy to the point where a woman can die from fatal problems such as a membrane in which the pregnancy has ruptured, “inevitable abortion,” severe pre-school syndrome, infections that can cause uterine rupture or loss of fertility.
As the matter remains in the lawsuit, Briggs will say the bill will only go to the Senate floor and say it will “complete” the court’s decision.
Tennessee Medical Association lobbyist Julie Baker said her group was disappointed that the first bill had failed, but called the alternative measure a “step in the right direction.” She was unclear whether the group would push forward the bill, which was defeated again next year, but “fatal fetal abnormalities” remained an issue, forcing women to travel out of state for abortion to avoid the risk of a life-threatening pregnancy.
Get the morning heading.
