A Tennessee court will weigh whether to temporarily block the state\u2019s abortion ban when it comes to dangerous pregnancies, after hearing arguments Thursday in a legal challenge to the law\u2019s narrow medical exception.<\/p>\n
The three-judge panel could also decide to dismiss the case entirely when it eventually renders its decision.<\/p>\n
The case against the state was brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights, which argues that the \u201cunconstitutionally vague\u201d language in the medical exception in Tennessee\u2019s abortion ban endangers the lives of pregnant women.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Nicole Blackmon was about 15 weeks pregnant when her fetus was diagnosed with a deadly anomaly, according to the lawsuit. Blackmon, of Nashville, was denied an abortion and later gave birth to a stillborn baby after more than 32 hours of labor.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the state\u2019s cruel laws, I was forced to carry a baby for months that was never going to live,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cI was condemned to endure both physical and emotional torture, knowing that I was going to deliver a stillborn.\u201d<\/p>\n The nonprofit filed a lawsuit in September on behalf of Blackmon, who is the lead plaintiff, and six other women who were denied abortions despite facing major health complications, as well as two obstetrician-gynecologists who say the threat of extreme penalties has impeded their ability to provide care.<\/p>\n The penalties include up to 15 years in prison, a $10,000 fine and the loss of one\u2019s medical license.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has a chilling effect,\u201d Center for Reproductive Rights attorney Linda Goldstein said during Thursday\u2019s hearing in Nashville.<\/p>\n Tennessee\u2019s abortion ban went into effect on Aug. 25, 2022, about two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark ruling that had guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion.<\/p>\n The state later created an exception for situations in which the abortion is \u201cnecessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.\u201d<\/p>\n But abortion rights advocates argue that the ambiguous and nonmedical terminology leaves doctors uncertain about when they can render care without being prosecuted.<\/p>\n The medical exception doesn\u2019t work if doctors \u201ccan\u2019t understand it,\u201d Goldstein said.<\/p>\n \u201cDoctors are denying or delaying abortion care in cases where even defendants concede that it would be legally permissible,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are doing this because the terms of the medical necessity exception are vague.\u201d<\/p>\n Goldstein said the plaintiffs were not seeking to strike down the abortion ban. Instead, Goldstein said, attorneys for the plaintiffs wanted the court to \u201cinterpret\u201d the statute and specifically confirm that the medical necessity exception permits abortions when there is a fatal fetal diagnosis that puts the mother\u2019s life or health at risk.<\/p>\n The nonprofit said clarifying the medical necessity exception would allow doctors to \u201cpreserve a patient\u2019s life or health without waiting for patients to be acutely ill.\u201d<\/p>\n During Thursday\u2019s hearing, one of the three judges said the panel cannot \u201credline\u201d or rewrite the statute. Another judge pushed Goldstein to better illustrate the \u201cimmediate\u201d harm that needs to exist to justify a temporary injunction.<\/p>\n In November, the state of Tennessee filed a motion to dismiss the case. In part, the state said, governmental entities are protected from being sued under a legal doctrine known as sovereign immunity.<\/p>\n In addition to the state of Tennessee, the plaintiffs are suing the state\u2019s attorney general, the state\u2019s Board of Medical Examiners and the board\u2019s president.<\/p>\n The Center for Reproductive Rights has also filed similar lawsuits and complaints in Texas, Idaho and Oklahoma.<\/p>\n More than a dozen states have restrictive abortion bans or no longer have facilities where women can receive abortions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] A Tennessee court will weigh whether to temporarily block the state\u2019s abortion ban when it comes to dangerous pregnancies, after hearing arguments Thursday in a legal challenge to the law\u2019s narrow medical exception. The three-judge panel could also decide to dismiss the case entirely when it eventually renders its decision. The case against the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34801"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Lead](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2024-04\/240404-nicole-blackmon-ew-310p-06fe1a.jpg\")
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