Lawmakers Line Up To Add Exceptions To Tennessee Abortion Law

From Left: Senator Ken Yager, Senator Ferrell Haile, House Speaker Cameron Sexton Image Credit: Nick Youngson / Alpha Stock Images / CC & capitol/tn.gov

By Sam Stockard [Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –

Six months after one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws took effect in Tennessee, state lawmakers are ready to loosen it. 

Sen. Ferrell Haile confirmed to the Tennessee Lookout this week he is preparing legislation to make rape and incest exceptions to the “trigger” law, which was enacted in 2019 before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.

Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Ken Yager also is set to sponsor a bill to change the “affirmative defense” mechanism that criminalizes physicians who perform abortions to save the life of a mother going through a deadly pregnancy. 

“I’m certainly going to support that piece of (Yager) legislation going forward, and I’m still looking at some other options,” Haile, a Gallatin Republican, said this week.

Haile and Yager are both leaders of the Senate Republican Caucus and are likely to be given leeway by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally to carry their bills through the legislative process without him trying to quash them, though McNally is satisfied with the law as written.

Yager recently said his legislation would “strengthen protections” for doctors who perform abortions to save the life of the mother or stop her from suffering the loss of bodily functions by changing the “affirmative defense” exception “to a clear exception when the life of the mother is in clear jeopardy.”

“Although well intended, the affirmative defense provision is not only overly burdensome for physicians but it can prevent them from performing life-saving abortions for fear of litigation, which puts at risk the lives of pregnant women who require medically necessary abortions,” Yager said in a statement.

The Kingston Republican noted he has heard from constituents and doctors who support such a bill. He added that “abortion would remain illegal” under his legislation in Tennessee.

Yet another heavy hitter, House Speaker Cameron Sexton, is saying he would back exceptions to the abortion restrictions.

“Speaker Sexton believes clarification is needed in the current law, as well as a change to affirmative defense — meaning someone has to prove their innocence which runs contrary to our judicial system. A doctor should not be singled out under affirmative defense instead of the usual standard of being innocent until proven guilty,” spokesman Doug Kufner said this week. “As with any legislation, should a proposal with agreeable language make it through the committee system to the House floor — including exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother — the speaker would be supportive.”

Sexton is expected to appoint a committee when the General Assembly convenes next week, along with standing committees, that would shepherd such legislation through the House.

Tennessee Right to Life PAC, which pushed the “trigger bill” to passage, withdrew an endorsement of Republican Sen. Richard Briggs for saying he supports changes to the law. It will be interesting to see if they harangue Speaker Sexton, Yager and Haile, to Former legislator Roger Kane, leader of the Tennessee Right to Life PAC said this week he doesn’t expect to pull any other endorsements, even if legislators sponsor bills to tweak the law. Briggs was targeted, Kane said, because he kept seeking out the media to make his point.

Right to Life counsel Will Brewer said last week he is set to meet with Yager and Haile and is waiting to see the legislation but still opposes “any changes in the abstract.”

Democrats said last summer they would be proposing a litany of bills designed to turn back the state’s abortion ban, which is among the most stringent in the nation.

Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, a Chattanooga Democrat, is sponsoring HB10, that specifies a criminal abortion doesn’t include a procedure necessitated by a medical emergency affecting the physical or mental health of the mother or one performed on a patient whose pregnancy was the result of rape or incest. It requires the doctor who performs the abortion to verify the patient reported the offense to law enforcement before the procedure.

Hakeem filed his bill weeks ago, but it would be fairly amazing to see this Republican-controlled Legislature allow a Democrat to turn back a bill they worked so hard to pass, only to realize they angered every physician in Tennessee, in addition to many women who, like it or not, go to the ballot box.

About the Author: Sam Stockard is a veteran Tennessee reporter and editor, having written for the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro, where he served as lead editor when the paper won an award for being the state’s best Sunday newspaper two years in a row. He has led the Capitol Hill bureau for The Daily Memphian. His awards include Best Single Editorial from the Tennessee Press Association. Follow Stockard on Twitter @StockardSam