Sen. Richard Briggs Spreads Misinformation About Tennessee’s Abortion Ban, Announces “Freedom To Have Children And A Family Act”
Image Credit: State Senator Richard Briggs / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
Sen. Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville-District 7) has announced new legislation called the “Freedom to Have Children and a Family Act,” which would weaken Tennessee’s current abortion law under the guise that women cannot be properly treated by their doctors under current law.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in June of 2022 Tennessee’s trigger law went into effect, banning abortions across the state.
Tennessee’s 2023 legislative session was the first opportunity for lawmakers to propose legislation and further clarify what abortion law was going to look like on the state level.
At the time Sen. Briggs was one of several Republican lawmakers touting a bill to weaken the state’s abortion ban.
This proposed legislation was “poorly written” according to Will Brewer, the Legal Counsel and Director of Government Relations for Tennessee Right to Life.
Brewer explained that the bill created “an exception so broad that any doctor can come up with a reason to terminate a pregnancy” so long as they claim it is to save the life of the mother or to treat/prevent a medical emergency from occurring.
Due to the work of pro-life advocates the bill’s language was shifted and Tennessee Right to Life endorsed the amended bill, SB0745/HB0883.
It passed in the state legislature, becoming law on April 28th, 2023.
Prior to the passage of SB0745/HB0883, it was already not a criminal offense in Tennessee to “terminate the pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant with intent to increase the probability of a live birth, to preserve the life or health of the child after live birth, or to remove a dead fetus.”
SB0745/HB0883 as amended, further clarified that “termination of a pregnancy with the intent to terminate an ectopic or molar pregnancy” does not constitute a criminal abortion.
It also clarified that it is not an offense for a physician to perform an abortion if that physician is properly licensed, attempts to perform the abortion “in a manner which provides the best opportunity for the unborn child to survive,” and that physician determines in “good faith medical judgement” that the abortion was necessary to prevent the death or “irreversible impairment of major bodily function” of the pregnant woman.
However, it seems these exemptions are not enough for Sen. Briggs.
“What we’re looking at this year is to take some of those medical conditions, where either the child cannot survive outside the womb or it’s a condition where if the woman is not treated properly, that she could end up unable to have children,” Sen. Briggs told News Channel 2.
“Unfortunately, […] the state legislature has a law that would cause women to be sterile and unable to bear children, even if they wanted to have children. They would have to leave the state in order to be treated,” Sen. Briggs claimed.
What particular medical conditions he is referencing, and what state law prevents women from receiving proper care for those medical conditions in Tennessee remains unclear.
Sen. Briggs has not filed his new abortion bill yet, but it will likely aim to expand current exemptions and resemble what was initially proposed in 2023.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
I really really despise briggs. He’s pompous arrogant and condescending. He’s clearly a RINO and needs to just change his party affiliation to match his voting record and attitude. “I was a doctor in the army so ur too stupid”
He was lying, I know because his mouth was moving again
The law needs to be changed to allow abortion in cases of rape and incest. As it stands, the law is an obscenity with no regard for the lives and health of women. Shame on the pro rape/pro incest republicans.
I know a man who’s father and g-father was same person. He’s sure glad his mom didn’t kill him.
So Briggs is yet another satan worshipping pedophile who wants to murder children and sacrifice them to baphomet.
Roger that.
If the rapist has fathered other children should they also be murdered?
What crime is the unborn child guilty of ?
Can you sight solid studies that show the benefit of an abortion following rape/incest?
What percentage of pregnancies result from rape/incest?
Pure propaganda using pro extreme examples. Please provide the percentages of women who need abortions because of rape or incest in the ONE MILLION WOMEN a year who seek abortions. Anybody?
Shame on Lily who wants innocent babies to die in-utero because either their mother or father was heinous.
The law does not promote/condone rape or incest at all.
How is it “pro” rape or incest? NOTHING in the law supports either action.
Both are rape and incest are against the law, including when minors are involved and Republicans fully support prosecuting the preps 100%.
A child conceived via rape or incest is just as human and real as a child conceived another way. One does not kill a child for the crimes of the father.
Repubs need to listen to Hannity and look at the 2020 election and how bad that guy in PA lost who was 100% “pro-life” – he lost by 16%. Also, look at what recently happened in Ohio. Laws that don’t allow an abortion for rape cost Repubs lots of votes. I’m a conservative but I won’t vote for anyone who is so cruel as to force a girl to have a rapist’s baby. If the Dems win, we are in big trouble, so listen to what voter’s want and be realistic. Don’t try to force your religious views on other people.
why are you so cruel as to allow that child, that baby, to be killed because of the crime of her father?
Do you know that the majority of mothers pregnant via rape give birth to their babies? Those babies are just as real, just as human as all other babies.
Yup, lucifer’s RINO Griggs.
“Unfortunately, […] the state legislature has a law that would cause women to be sterile and unable to bear children, even if they wanted to have children.”
Pretty ridiculous statement coming from Briggs (R-gerrymandered lakehouse), especially considering he is part of the TNGOP Pfizer Contingent that pushed the Deathvax on Tennesseans – which also terminated wanted pregnancies. He will therefore always be promoting population reduction.
Never forget:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N0XJMDsOcSrPXrPkcZU_2svjZg4ZqhqQ/preview
This article claims that abortion has been banned in Tennessee. That is false. It is still legal for a mother to take the life of her pre-born child at any time from fertilization until birth. The “trigger law” plainly states, “This section does not subject the pregnant woman upon whom an abortion is
performed or attempted to criminal conviction or penalty.” (SECTION 2e)
We need politicians who will do what is right and provide equal protection under the law for ALL Tennesseans, born and preborn, as the fourteenth amendment requires. Our current law is unjust and an offence to God. We must abolish abortion.
Briggs admitted he did not read the previous TN pro-life bill because he did not believe it would pass. A truly evil man.
Wow, lots of commentary from all angles here, so I’ll add my two cents for what it’s worth. I’ll start by saying that I’m not religious; depending on religious people’s viewpoints, some categorize me as atheist, others as agnostic. The point being that my feelings on this issue have no ethereal influence.
I think that abortion, by its very nature, is a horrible thing. I also side with those who hold the viewpoint that life begins at conception. I hold this view from the standpoint that it’s the only way you can define it. If I declare that “Life begins at day or week X of the pregnancy” then I’m playing either God or Frankenstein, which is not a position I would ever assign myself. Something is either alive or it isn’t, and you could carry the “group of cells” argument all the way out of the womb. “This thing has the potential to become a doctor or an architect, but at the moment, it’s just a lump of flesh that craps and cries, can’t communicate with me, and keeps me up all night. I should be allowed to get rid of it.”
Having said all of this, I also believe there are worse things than abortion; forcing a woman to have a baby she doesn’t want, being at the top of the list. Our prisons are full of people who were unwanted children, and it seems that parental rejection is something that we just “can’t get over”, that no amount of counseling as an adult can correct. I can’t speak for everyone, but as for myself, I would definitely rather not have been born, than to spend my life in and out of the correctional system.
Tying in with this is rape and incest. There may be the rare case where a child who is the product of one of these circumstances turns out “normal”, but I would wager it’s the exception rather than the rule, and it also seems cruel to me to force a woman to carry a living, breathing reminder of that for a lifetime. The best solution, obviously, is for people not to put themselves in these circumstances, but remedy should be available when they do.
You can choose to end your life if you do not want to spend it in prison, but poor or bad circumstances do not guarantee that. When you know the Creator you will understand He values each life, and gives hope and life to those who return to Him for relationship. Trying to judge the value of a life already lived is armchair quarterbacking at best. At worse, it is a marxist idea of the worth of a human. While I understand the inconvenience of spending 9 months carrying a child one does not want, even though one had unprotected sex 99% of the time, it is a crying shame we feel death is the righteous justification for a “mistake”, said mistake being the consequences of an act, not the act itself, nor the irresponsibility of the act… Too bad we cannot see that.
“Tying in with this is rape and incest. There may be the rare case where a child who is the product of one of these circumstances turns out “normal”, but I would wager it’s the exception rather than the rule, and it also seems cruel to me to force a woman to carry a living, breathing reminder of that for a lifetime.”
So you are saying that my daughter that I carried is the exception and not the rule? That I should have been allowed to terminate her so that I would not relive my trauma? I should exterminate her because who her father is.
You are EVIL!
Any unwanted child can be surrendered at birth for adoption and IS wanted! There are NO “unwanted” children … they may not be “wanted” by their biological mothers and but they are truly wanted by loving families ready and willing to raise them with love.
No woman is forced to raise her own children. That is a choice.