Two Tennessee Republican lawmakers support measures that allow doctors to perform abortions, including “fatal fetal abnormalities,” and are latent with those opposed to changes in the state’s abortion ban. This is a conflict that is set up.

Sponsored by Senators Richard Briggs and Esther Helton Haynes of Knoxville House Bill 1241which specifies that doctors do not commit a “criminal abortion” by carrying out procedures to address “fatal fetal abnormalities” or early childbirth in a deadly state.

The measure is supported by the Tennessee Medical Association following the October 2024 ruling Blackmon V. Tennessee A panel of three judges discovered that doctors can end their pregnancy to end. The court also outlined fatal fetal diagnosis that could qualify under their ruling.

Tennessee’s abortion ban only allows procedures when the mother’s life is at risk.

The Medical Association hopes that Tennessee, an anti-abortion group, will oppose the bill. However, the group’s lawyer and lobbyist Will Brewer declined to comment until the bill was ready to go to the committee.

Helton Haynes, who tried to add an exception to the abortion ban two years ago, said the bill was needed because of the life-threatening conditions that many women face while pregnant.

“It just makes it an exception like the mother’s life. Fatal fetal abnormalities are incompatible with life outside the uterus,” Helton Haynes said.

Briggs, a retired Army doctor, said a change to the abortion ban was needed as a panel of three judges saw four errors in the law that requires cure. He said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skulmetti was unprotectable.

The state’s human life protection law is highly “flawed,” Briggs said other aspects could be challenged in court and the entire law could collapse.

“We want to redefine abortion and redefine the medically necessary ending of pregnancy,” Briggs added that he would like to separate “culture and social wars” from medical care to save lives and women’s fertility.

The Tennessee Medical Association wants to prevent criminal charges from being filed against doctors who carry out procedures to save women experiencing dangerous pregnancy.

The state’s abortion ban forced many women to go to a state that allows their pregnancy to end if it involves “fatal fetal abnormalities.”

“The Tennessee Medical Association lobbyist Julie Griffin said:

However, he said that without amendments, the state’s anti-abortion laws could be “dangerous” when moving through the court system.

Tennessee’s planning parents declined to comment on the bill.