Tennessee Lawmakers Sneak In Attack On Human Life Protection Act Via Caption Bill

Image Credit: Kelly Verdeck / CC

The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

A bill that weakens the Human Protection Life Act passed the Population Health Subcommittee last week and now goes to the full Health Committee on Wednesday, February 22nd, at 3:30 p.m. Central Time.

Will Brewer, Legal Counsel and Director of Government Relations for Tennessee Right to Life is calling on pro-life Tennesseans to contact their legislators to tell them to oppose the bill because it is poorly written. Brewer says there is “common ground that we can all get behind to clarify the law and make sure that these exceptions are more clear for doctors and more clear for the mothers that are in these situations. Tennessee Right to Life supports those clarifications.”

Referred to as the “Life of the Mother, Post Dobbs Cleanup Act,” House Bill 0883 (HB0883) is in reality an attack on the strict abortion law passed last year, weakening the law and offering cover for abortionists in the state. 

In a Facebook video from last week, Brewer stated that House Speaker Cameron Sexton specifically designed the newly created Population Health Subcommittee this year and put members in it specifically so the bill would pass out of that subcommittee and onto the Health Committee.

Brewer then explains that HB0883 creates an exception so broad that any doctor can come up with a reason to terminate a pregnancy as long as they claim it is to save the life of the mother, to treat or prevent a medical emergency from happening. 

“Now we can all agree that it’s very pro-life to treat a medical emergency for a mother, it is quite a different thing to prevent one from happening,” said Brewer. “You can claim anything is going to happen and claim that you are trying to prevent that, especially with the subjective standard that they’re using in this bill, so… this bill would allow for far more terminations than are already in law from the Human Life Protection Act.”

According to Brewer, Sexton “very clearly indicated that this is a priority piece of his legislation” and that “there were legislative tactics to not release this bill to the public until just about 24 hours before committee time.”

The amendment that makes the bill can be found here.

“We are under attack,” said Brewer. “We are under attack from Democrats. We are under attack from Republicans. And we are under attack from Republicans who are calling themselves pro-life. Call your legislators and let them know that Tennessee Right to Life does not support House Bill 0883, and will score anybody who votes in favor of it as a negative vote, meaning that they will get a poor grade on their voting report card from Tennessee Right to Life if they vote in favor of HB0883.”

Brewer says the 9-page amendment takes the strictest abortion ban in the country, a mere 2-page law, and makes it an abortion on demand bill in “sheep’s clothing.”

The contact information for the members of the House Health Committee can be found below.

Rep. Bryan Terry (R) – Chair – rep.bryan.terry@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2480

Rep. Tom Leatherwood (R) – Vice-Chair – rep.tom.leatherwood@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7084

Rep. Clark Boyd (R) – rep.clark.boyd@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7086

Rep. Michele Carringer (R) – rep.michele.carringer@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1721

Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D) – rep.john.ray.clemmons@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4410

Rep. Jeremy Faison (R) – rep.jeremy.faison@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-6871

Rep. Andrew Farmer (R) – rep.andrew.farmer@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4419

Rep. John Gillespie (R) – rep.john.gillespie@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-8201

Rep. Yusuf Hakeem (D) – rep.yusuf.hakeem@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2702

Rep. David Hawk (R) – rep.david.hawk@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7482

Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes (R) – rep.esther.helton@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1934

Rep. Caleb Hemmer (D) – rep.caleb.hemmer@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2035

Rep. Gary Hicks (R) – rep.gary.hicks@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7480

Rep. Tim Hicks (R) – rep.tim.hicks@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1717

Rep. Darren Jernigan (D) – rep.darren.jernigan@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-6959

Rep. Sabi Kumar (R) – rep.sabi.kumar@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2860

Rep. Brock Martin (R) – rep.brock.martin@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7478

Rep. Bo Mitchell (D) – rep.bo.mitchell@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4317

Rep. Iris Rudder (R) – rep.iris.rudder@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-8695

Rep. Paul Sherrell (R) – rep.paul.sherrell@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1963

Rep. Ron Travis (R) – rep.ron.travis@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1450

Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R) – rep.kevin.vaughan@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1866

Rep. Sam Whitson (R) – rep.sam.whitson@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1864

Rep. Ryan Williams (R) – rep.ryan.williams@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1875

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.