by Jennifer Nuelle
A panel of three Tennessee chancery court judges on Thursday ruled that doctors in the state cannot face penalties or have their licenses revoked for performing emergency abortions.
The initial lawsuit challenging the state’s abortion ban was brought by several plaintiffs in 2023 who asked the court to clarify the situations as to where patients can receive an abortion legally. Tennessee’s abortion ban took effect in 2022, giving restricted exceptions on emergency abortions regarding saving the mother’s life or if the child was not expected to survive through the entire pregnancy.
Not only did the Thursday ruling note that doctors can perform emergency abortions without repercussions, but the judges also outlined specific pregnancy-related conditions that would be viewed as exemptions.
“This lack of clarity is evidenced by the confusion and lack of consensus within the Tennessee medical community on the circumstances requiring necessary health- and life-saving abortion care,” the ruling stated. “The evidence presented underscores how serious, difficult, and complex these issues are and raises significant questions as to whether the medical necessity exception is sufficiently narrow to serve a compelling state interest.”
Abortion exemptions now include abortions deemed inevitable, if the amniotic sac surrounding the fetus ruptures prematurely, if it is predicted that the child is not going to survive and it causes the mother high blood pressure and other sever symptoms or if it is predicted that the child will not survive, causing an infection leading to a rupture of the womb, the judges decided, according to The Associated Press.
“The Court concludes Plaintiff Patients have made the required showing of a likelihood of success on the merits of their constitutional right to life challenge to the Medical Necessity Exception, at least to the extent of the maternal medical conditions the parties agree should come within the Medical Necessity Exception for purpose of temporary injunctive relief,” the ruling noted.
Several women make up the group of plaintiffs, which argued in the original suit filed in September 2023 that the ban put pregnant women’s lives at risk. Tennessee’s abortion ban also barred clinics from referring individuals to go out-of-state for an abortion or to receive an abortion service that violates the law.
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Jennifer Nuelle is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
