NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A three-judge panel ruled Thursday that Tennessee doctors who perform emergency abortions to protect the mother’s life cannot have their medical licenses revoked or face other disciplinary action while a lawsuit challenges the rights of the mother stands. a drastic abortion ban continues.
The ruling also outlined specific pregnancy-related conditions that would now qualify as “medical necessity exceptions” under the ban, which currently does not include exceptions for fetal abnormalities or for victims of rape or incest.
“This lack of clarity is reflected in the confusion and lack of consensus within the Tennessee medical community regarding the circumstances that require necessary health and life-saving abortion care,” the ruling said. “The evidence presented underlines how serious, difficult and complex these issues are and raises important questions about whether the medical necessity exception is sufficiently narrow to serve a compelling state interest.”
The justices ruled that the following medical conditions are now covered by the state’s abortion exemptions: premature rupture of the amniotic sac that surrounds the fetus; unavoidable abortions; fatal fetal diagnoses resulting in severe preeclampsia or mirror syndrome associated with fetal hydrops; and fatal fetal diagnoses leading to an infection that will result in uterine rupture or possible loss of fertility.
The abortion law initially only explicitly stated that ectopic or molar pregnancies qualify as exemptions, as do physicians who use their “reasonable medical judgment” to “prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to reduce a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of prevent health’. an important bodily function.”
The ruling is a victory for reproductive rights advocates, who have argued that the Volunteer State’s abortion ban, in effect since 2022, is too vague and unfairly puts doctors at high legal risk for violating the statute.
However, the judges also said that because they are a chancery court, they do not have the jurisdiction to block the criminal statute within the ban – with offenders being charged with a misdemeanor with a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
This means that while doctors will not face disciplinary action from the attorney general’s office and the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners, they could still face criminal charges under Thursday’s ruling.
The lawsuit was initially filed last year by a group of women and doctors who asked the judges to clarify the circumstances in which patients can legally have an abortion. Specifically, they requested the court to include fatal diagnoses.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents women and doctors, argued that the Republican Party-dominated General Assembly wrote Tennessee’s abortion ban so broadly and vaguely that doctors have no choice but to operate in fear that their decisions about whether not having an abortion will be questioned, undermined and potentially used to bring career-ending charges against them.
The plaintiffs include 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.
Still, her doctor said Tennessee’s abortion ban prohibited abortion services in her situation and Milner was forced to travel to Virginia for an abortion, returning to Tennessee with a high fever. Doctors told her she had an infection and that delaying the abortion could worsen the infection.
Prosecutors had countered that doctors do not want their medical decisions questioned by the government and tried to dismiss the case by arguing that the plaintiffs had no standing. The judges largely denied that request, but agreed to dismiss one of the women who joined the lawsuit because she had undergone surgery that prevented her from becoming pregnant again.
“The state’s position from the beginning has been that Tennessee’s Human Life Protection Act allows pregnant women to receive all necessary care to address serious health risks,” Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement. “The court’s limited order reflects that understanding. We all agree that doctors must save lives and protect their patients.”
The legal challenge in Tennessee is part of one handful of lawsuits filed in the US. in Republican-dominant states after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.