Both the Tennessee Senate and House have now passed the state’s Human Life Protection Act (HLPA), legislation that bans abortion, with only one change – an exception for saving the life of the mother – one that the pro-life community says will continue to protect the right to life of all unborn children in the state.
Gov. Bill Lee (R) is expected to sign the legislation.
By a vote of 26-1, the full Tennessee Senate on Wednesday passed SB745, the companion bill to HB883, which clarifies that treatments of ectopic pregnancy and miscarriages are in no way considered criminal abortions under the HLPA.
The legislation changes what is called the “affirmative defense” to an exception for those times when the life of the mother is at risk or there is risk of irreversible harm to a major bodily function.”
Tennessee’s “trigger” law that bans abortion took effect August 25, two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Democrat lawmakers attempted to add numerous other exceptions to the abortion prohibition, including the “health of the mother,” a phrase pro-life leaders asserted has been used by the abortion industry for decades as a huge loophole to support its profits because it has allowed even minor psychological disturbances to be rationalized as a reason for abortion.
While some Tennessee officials, including Lee, acknowledged the HLPA, as it stood, already provided protection for the mother in dire, life-threatening situations, others believed the law needed to be clarified since an abortionist who terminated a pregnancy could be charged with a felony and would then need to provide an “affirmative defense” against the charges in court to prove they performed the abortion to avoid a life-threatening situation.
— tnrighttolife (@tnrighttolife) March 27, 2023
The bill that has now passed the state legislature removes the affirmative defense and allows providers to use “reasonable medical judgment” to decide whether an abortion is necessary to save the mother’s life.
Tennessee Right to Life celebrated that the new legislation “will not broaden the scope of the Human Life Protection Act and will not allow for more unborn children to be aborted in our state.”
The pro-life group detailed its successes:
In addition to this victory, legislators also passed legislation that prohibits local governments from using tax dollars to fund the travel or expenses of aborting children in other states. HB90/SB600 passed the House and Senate Chambers overwhelmingly earlier this session.
Both of these pro-life bills are now headed to the Governor’s desk for his signature.
“Next year will be a new battle, but for now, Tennessee values are reflected in Tennessee law,” Tennessee Right to Life noted. “Every day, every month and every year that goes by without legalized abortion moves us that much closer to a day when abortion is not only illegal but unthinkable.”
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
No surprise here. The limp wristed GOP members just made a very BIG loophole in the state’s abortion law. I figure that saving a mother from a hangnail will qualify for abortion approval because ” ‘…there is risk of irreversible harm to a major bodily function.’ ”
What a bunch of losers.