More women are joining the fight against Tennessee's abortion ban
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — On Monday, more women joined a lawsuit in Tennessee against the state's broad abortion ban, which took effect shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
The legal challenge is part of a handful of lawsuits filed across the U.S. in Republican-dominant states seeking clarity on the circumstances that qualify patients to legally obtain an abortion.
Here's the latest on what's happening in Tennessee and where many of the lawsuits are pending.
On Monday, four more women joined the legal battle in Tennessee that was first filed in September, bringing the total number of plaintiffs suing the state's abortion ban to nine, including two doctors.
Three of the women added Monday were denied abortions while experiencing serious pregnancy complications, forcing them to leave the state to undergo the procedure.
Among the new claimants is Rebecca Milner, who learned she was pregnant with her first child in February 2023 after several years of failed fertility treatments.
According to court documents, Milner was told during a 20-week appointment that the amniotic fluid around her baby was low. A specialist later said that her waters had probably broken several weeks earlier and that nothing could be done to save the baby.
However, her doctor said that Tennessee's abortion ban prohibited abortion services in her situation.
That's because the ban only explicitly mentions ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages as legally permitted exceptions. Although the law also allows doctors to use “reasonable medical judgment” in determining whether an abortion is necessary to prevent the death of a pregnant patient or to prevent irreversible, serious impairment of a major bodily function, medical experts have criticized this provision as too vague. , one that puts physicians at high legal risk of violating the statute.
In Milner's case, court documents say she ultimately traveled to Virginia for an abortion and returned to Tennessee with a high fever. Doctors told her she had an infection and that delaying the abortion could worsen the infection.
“Contrary to its stated purpose of promoting life, Tennessee's ban exposes pregnant patients to serious risks of death, injury and disease, including loss of fertility – making it less likely that every family that would bring a child into the world wants to bring, are able to do so,” the lawsuit states.
In Tennessee, plaintiffs argue that the ban violates pregnant patients' right to life, as guaranteed by the state constitution, and are asking a three-judge panel to clarify the circumstances that qualify patients to legally obtain an abortion. The circumstances they want to include include fatal diagnoses.
On Monday, the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents the plaintiffs, amended their complaint to also request a temporary injunction as the lawsuit progresses.
“After we filed this case in September, our phones lit up with calls from people who were forced to endure similar horror stories,” said Linda Goldstein, an attorney with the center. “These women endured unnecessary pain and suffering, and some almost died. The medical exceptions to abortion bans are clearly not working – and that applies not just in Tennessee, but in every other state that bans abortion.”
A spokesperson for the Tennessee attorney general's office, charged with defending the state's abortion ban, did not immediately respond to an email request seeking comment.
The Center for Reproductive Rights has launched a legal battle in Idaho, Oklahoma and Texas to gain more clarity on when exceptions are allowed under abortion ban laws.
A state judge in Idaho recently denied a request from the state's top legal chief to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to clarify the exemptions hidden in the state's broad abortion ban.
Instead, 4th District Judge Jason Scott limited the case to focus only on the circumstances in which abortion would be permitted and whether emergency abortion care applies to Idaho's constitutional right to enjoy life and defense, and to the right to security.
Meanwhile, a Texas judge initially ruled that the Texas ban was too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications, but that decision was quickly put on hold after the state appealed. Now it's up to the Texas Supreme Court to make a ruling, which could take months.