By Dave Andrusko
As pro-lifers anticipated and pro-abortionists dreaded, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee today signed a multi-part Tennessee abortion bill into law.
“Lee, who announced the legislation in January alongside Republican lawmakers, said during a livestream from his desk Monday that he was signing ‘arguably the most conservative, pro-life piece of legislation in the country’” Jonathan Mattise of the Associated Press reported.
Here is the Tennessean’s Natalie Allison’s summary.
Abortions are banned except to save the mother’s life
- If the doctor knows that the woman is seeking an abortion because of the child’s sex or race.
- If the doctor knows the woman is seeking an abortion due to a diagnosis of Down syndrome.
- After the point a fetal heartbeat can be detected
- For juveniles in custody of the Department of Children’s Services, including removing the current option to petition a judge for permission.
The legislation also
- “Require[s] that abortion clinics post a sign in the waiting room and in patient rooms informing people that it may be possible to reverse a chemical abortion.”
If the six-week ban is stricken, the legislation goes on to “automatically enact abortion bans at eight, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 weeks of gestation,” according to Allison.
The usual-usuals had already challenged the law, so it came as no surprise when a clearly-sympathetic U.S. District Judge William Campbell immediately granted a temporary restraining order pending a July 24 hearing, at the request of Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and other abortion rights groups.
He cited the preferred pro-abortion rationale—the law represented an “undue burden.”