Texas Law Sets Stage For Tennessee’s Next Abortion Battles

By Anita Wadhwani, Tennessee Lookout

September 2, 2021

On the same day a Texas law went into affect banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, advocates on both sides of the abortion debate were preparing for impact in Tennessee.

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and Northern Mississippi is on standby and ready to offer financial and logistical assistance to Texas women who decide to leave the state to obtain an abortion, said CEO Ashley Coffield. The organization operates clinics in Memphis, Knoxville and Nashville.

“We will do what we can to help Texans get the care they need here in Tennessee,” Coffield said. “Unfortunately we’re starting to think about what it will take to help our patients find care outside of Tennessee if the worst happens.”

The Texas abortion law – now the most restrictive in effect in the nation – bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is typically in the sixth week of pregnancy and often before a woman knows she is pregnant. The law also allows private citizens to sue anyone who assisted a women getting an abortion after this point in pregnancy.

Those provisions have no immediate effect on women seeking abortion in Tennessee, where the fate of a “heartbeat” abortion ban, signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee then put on hold by a federal court, remains in the hands of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Without Roe (v. Wade) there is no protection for abortion in Tennessee because of all the laws that have already passed, including a six-week abortion ban and our state constitution was amended in 2014 to remove any protections for abortion rights.

– Ashley Coffield, CEO, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi

But the decision late Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court — which denied denied a petition seeking to halt the Texas law before taking effect — could be a harbinger of a shift in the court’s approach to abortion ahead of oral arguments later this year on a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That case is widely seen as a test case for potentially overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision.

“We’re excited to see this,” said Will Brewer, legal counsel and director of government relations for Tennessee Right to Life, which opposes abortion. Brewer was speaking Wednesday before the court’s decision, when it appeared the court may not weigh in at all.

“We think the Supreme Court is signaling at least what its possible outcomes are with the Mississippi case,” Brewer said. “We feel like we are in possibly in an even better position and posture than Texas.”

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