House GOP, Democrats press Tennessee Right to Life during debate over abortion exceptions

A legislative hearing to consider potential changes to Tennessee's no-exception abortion ban sparked unusual public remarks from House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, who condemned an anti-abortion lobbyist over what Sexton called "intimidation" efforts.

The bill to legalize abortions in medical emergencies and other limited circumstances faced its first procedural hurdle in the House Population Health Subcommittee on Tuesday and overwhelmingly passed despite opposition from Will Brewer, lobbyist for the influential Tennessee Right to Life anti-abortion organization.

In opposing the bill, Brewer said the group's political action committee would "score" it negatively, alluding to a "report card" the group issues that measures lawmakers' anti-abortion bona fides. House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, castigated Brewer's comments, calling them political campaign threats.

Sexton slipped into the committee room a few minutes later, nearly an hour into debate, and signaled he wanted to speak.

Abortion debate:GOP Senator to bring bill adding exceptions to Tennessee's abortion law as new fight brews

"I'm down here because something happened that I've never experienced before: Somebody testifying tried to intimidate our members by telling them how they're going to score the vote," Sexton said.

Sexton, who had previously signaled he would support some limited exceptions to the abortion ban, said efforts to "intimidate this committee to go a certain direction is uncalled for."

Brewer left the committee room after Sexton's comments and said he would "let my testimony speak for itself" in response to a Tennessean request for comment.

The Tuesday meeting marked the first public debate over Tennessee's no-exceptions abortion ban after months of closed-doors discussions over potential changes to the law, which officially took effect last year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Growing support for some exceptions

The debate signaled the winds could be shifting for Tennessee Right to Life, which heavily pushed the 2019 Human Life Protection Act. Republicans overwhelmingly passed the 2019 law but several high-profile Republican lawmakers now say the bill goes too far in criminalizing medical practice.

Right to Life's political action committee yanked its endorsement of Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville, last fall after he publicly supported changes to the law, a move Briggs called a "shot across the bow" to other lawmakers considering their vote.

All abortions, even those performed to save the life of a pregnant patient, are currently illegal in Tennessee under the 2019 law. Medical professionals across the state have decried the law, saying it has a chilling effect on vital medical care in crisis situations.

The law contains an "affirmative defense" clause, allowing a physician to defend their medical decisions in a criminal case. But, regardless of whether criminal charges are filed, a physician who currently performs an abortion in the state commits a felony under state law.

Bill would clarify medical exceptions for law, including lethal fetal anomalies

House Bill 883 outlines multiple, explicit medical circumstances during which physicians could legally perform an abortion, including ectopic pregnancies, "medically futile" pregnancies and to "prevent or treat" a medical emergency.

Bill sponsor Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes, R-East Ridge, said the legislation is needed to clean up the Human Life Protection Act, which she called "confusing and contradictory."

The new legislation would allow abortions to "remove a medically futile pregnancy; remove an ectopic or molar pregnancy, dispose of an unimplanted fertilized egg, address a lethal fetal anomaly; or prevent or treat a medical emergency."

"These moms want their babies. They're not looking for an abortion, but something goes terribly wrong in their pregnancies," Helton-Haynes said. "I feel physicians shouldn't have to hesitate when they know what needs to be done to take care of these mothers. I think this is a truly pro-life bill."

Dr. Kim Fortner, vice president of the Center for Women & Infants at the University of Tennessee Medical Center and a high-risk maternal health expert, testified Tuesday the current law is endangering women and wasting resources when doctors can't practice preventative care.

Fortner told lawmakers about a recent patient whose pregnancy was at risk. Because of the law, her only choice was to go home and wait it out. She returned to the hospital hemorrhaging blood.

"She's in septic shock. She's at risk to lose her uterus. It's not always so clear that things just work themselves out," Fortner said. "Just because she can wait and come back in and still lives to talk about it. ... One, that won't always happen. Two, it also is a significant misuse of an ICU bed. It is a preventable occurrence."

Brewer criticized the bill's language for allowing physicians to make termination decisions on their "good faith" judgment, which Brewer called a "subjective standard."

"That's virtually un-prosecutable in a court of law if a doctor were to abuse this statute," Brewer said. "Once one doctor is let off the hook in a criminal trial, a doctor who abused the nature of this law, it would be open season for other doctors who wanted to perform bad-faith terminations to do so."

Tennessee medical professionals have criticized Right to Life's position, arguing it ignores the realities of medical practice and emergency medical decisions.

"No one is trying to game the system," Fortner said. "No one's looking for loopholes. We're looking for clarity. We're trying to take care of mothers, we're trying to take care of their families."

Rep. Sabi Kumar, R-Springfield, a medical doctor, said he was "really concerned that [Brewer] did not seem to care" about the legal jeopardy doctors face under the current law.

"We cannot leave this trigger law as it is," Kumar said. "We have to protect our doctors, we have to give them comfort of practice."

Other exception measures circulating

Though Helton-Haynes' bill is the first to get a committee hearing, other bills to introduce exceptions into Tennessee's abortion ban have also been filed.

Democratic Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, filed the first bill, which includes legal exceptions for life of the mother and increased exceptions involving a pregnant patient's mental health. Legislative Democrats have long decried the current law and called for increased access to abortion, but the party faces an uphill battle against the Republican supermajority.

Senate debate:GOP Senator to bring bill adding exceptions to Tennessee's abortion law as new fight brews

Senate Bill 983 seeks to shift the legal burden to "elective" abortions only, proposing language to define the term as any abortion that is not "medically necessary."

Senate Bill 857, sponsored by Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, would legalize abortions for pregnancies that resulted from rape or incest under certain circumstances. The bill includes stiff criminal penalties for "false" reporting of sexual assault to obtain an abortion, which has sparked some criticism over the potential chilling effects for sexual assault survivors.

Though Gov. Bill Lee and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, have continually said they're satisfied with the state law as is, Sexton said in late December “clarification” on the law is needed.

Reach Melissa Brown at mabrown@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee abortion ban, Republicans press state Right to Life