Tennessee Abortion Lawsuit Seeks Pause on Statewide Ban

A group of women is set to ask a three-judge panel in Tennessee this week to temporarily block the state’s abortion law — one of the strictest bans in the country — from being enforced while a lawsuit seeking to block the law proceeds. The state attorney general, at the same hearing, will argue to have the women’s case against the law dismissed.After Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Tennessee was one of the first states to ban abortion. The legislature had passed a trigger law, which was set to go into effect if the precedent was changed, immediately banning abortion in the state.Last year, Governor Lee signed a bill that would allow for a narrow slate of exceptions to the ban, letting women receive abortions in cases where a doctor determines it is necessary to prevent the death of or major injury to the mother.The women suing the state are planning to argue that the ban violates the pregnant woman’s right to life and are going to ask the three-judge panel to clarify the circumstances when a woman is allowed to receive an abortion.In Tennessee, doctors are required to provide what they call an “affirmative defense” proving that an abortion is medically necessary before they can perform the operation. The law states that doctors are allowed to use “reasonable medical judgment” to determine when an abortion would comply with the state’s law.At the hearing Thursday, attorneys for the women are planning to ask the court to put enforcement of Tennessee’s ban on hold while it determines whether it is consistent with the state’s constitution.The women are hoping to ultimately get the court to clarify under what circumstances abortion is legal in the state. As it stands now, only ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages are specified in the law.For one of the women bringing the case, she was denied an abortion despite doctors saying that her pregnancy was worsening an infection and fever she was battling.The woman ended up traveling to Virginia to receive treatment because doctors believed providing an abortion in Tennessee would pose too much legal risk.“After we filed this case in September, our phones lit up with calls from people who were forced to endure similar horror stories,” an attorney representing the women, Linda Goldstein, said in a statement. “These women were put through unnecessary agony and suffering, and some almost died. The medical exceptions to state abortion bans clearly do not work — and that is true not just in Tennessee but in every other state that bans abortion.”At the hearing Thursday, the Tennessee attorney general’s office is expected to argue that the entire case should be dismissed. The Tennessee attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Sun.

Tennessee Abortion Lawsuit Seeks Pause on Statewide Ban

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