SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Tennessee's New Abortion Law Criticized as 'Tool to Shame and Disgrace Women'
HB977 'adds pointless burdens to women while doing nothing to protect them,' says Planned Parenthood
May 19, 2015
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a new measure into law on Monday that forces women seeking abortions to wait 48 hours after a mandated in-person "counseling" session with a doctor in order to undergo the procedure.
HB 977 (pdf), sponsored by Rep. Matthew Hill (R-Jonesborough), makes Tennessee the 27th state to require patients seeking abortions to wait longer than 24 hours before having an abortion, according to (pdf) the Guttmacher Institute. At 48 hours, the waiting period is one of the longest in the nation. Opponents of the bill, including Planned Parenthood, have criticized lawmakers for crafting the legislation without consulting the medical community.
The new measure states that, barring a medical emergency, and with no exceptions for rape and incest, "no abortion will be performed until a waiting period of 48 hours has elapsed after the attending physician or referring physician has provided information" about the procedure.
However, as health advocates have noted, the information which physicians are required to provide comes from the state and is medically unfounded.
According to RH Reality Check, "In the last few years, state legislatures have been passing abortion restrictions largely based on unfounded theories that abortion is a dangerous procedure that significantly increases women's risk of developing breast cancer and mental health disorders, among other claims."
Under HB977, physicians who do not acquiesce to the new rules could face misdemeanor or felony charges. They also risk having their medical licenses revoked.
The bill "adds pointless burdens to women while doing nothing to protect them," said Planned Parenthood of the Greater Memphis Region in a statement on Monday. "It is a tool to shame and disgrace women who make the deeply personal decision to end a pregnancy. And it creates unnecessary financial and emotional hardships."
"This bill is part and parcel of the political strategy to pass laws in our state that are purported to protect women's health and safety, but in fact do quite the opposite," Planned Parenthood continued.
Gov. Haslam, a Republican, also signed a bill earlier this month that requires all clinics that perform 50 abortions or more annually to be regulated as outpatient surgery centers--a measure that has forced clinic closures in other states.
Currently, Tennessee only operates seven abortion clinics statewide. Women may have to travel 100 miles or more to reach one of those clinics, according to Anita Wadhwani of The Tennessean.
"Requiring them to make that trip twice will require time off work, child care and travel expenses that place an especially heavy burden on low-income working mothers, according to advocates who also argued that no other medical procedure has a mandatory waiting period in the state," Wadhwani writes. "Nationally, nearly two thirds of women seeking abortion already have at least one child at home."
Both of the new restrictive laws will go into effect July 1.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a new measure into law on Monday that forces women seeking abortions to wait 48 hours after a mandated in-person "counseling" session with a doctor in order to undergo the procedure.
HB 977 (pdf), sponsored by Rep. Matthew Hill (R-Jonesborough), makes Tennessee the 27th state to require patients seeking abortions to wait longer than 24 hours before having an abortion, according to (pdf) the Guttmacher Institute. At 48 hours, the waiting period is one of the longest in the nation. Opponents of the bill, including Planned Parenthood, have criticized lawmakers for crafting the legislation without consulting the medical community.
The new measure states that, barring a medical emergency, and with no exceptions for rape and incest, "no abortion will be performed until a waiting period of 48 hours has elapsed after the attending physician or referring physician has provided information" about the procedure.
However, as health advocates have noted, the information which physicians are required to provide comes from the state and is medically unfounded.
According to RH Reality Check, "In the last few years, state legislatures have been passing abortion restrictions largely based on unfounded theories that abortion is a dangerous procedure that significantly increases women's risk of developing breast cancer and mental health disorders, among other claims."
Under HB977, physicians who do not acquiesce to the new rules could face misdemeanor or felony charges. They also risk having their medical licenses revoked.
The bill "adds pointless burdens to women while doing nothing to protect them," said Planned Parenthood of the Greater Memphis Region in a statement on Monday. "It is a tool to shame and disgrace women who make the deeply personal decision to end a pregnancy. And it creates unnecessary financial and emotional hardships."
"This bill is part and parcel of the political strategy to pass laws in our state that are purported to protect women's health and safety, but in fact do quite the opposite," Planned Parenthood continued.
Gov. Haslam, a Republican, also signed a bill earlier this month that requires all clinics that perform 50 abortions or more annually to be regulated as outpatient surgery centers--a measure that has forced clinic closures in other states.
Currently, Tennessee only operates seven abortion clinics statewide. Women may have to travel 100 miles or more to reach one of those clinics, according to Anita Wadhwani of The Tennessean.
"Requiring them to make that trip twice will require time off work, child care and travel expenses that place an especially heavy burden on low-income working mothers, according to advocates who also argued that no other medical procedure has a mandatory waiting period in the state," Wadhwani writes. "Nationally, nearly two thirds of women seeking abortion already have at least one child at home."
Both of the new restrictive laws will go into effect July 1.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a new measure into law on Monday that forces women seeking abortions to wait 48 hours after a mandated in-person "counseling" session with a doctor in order to undergo the procedure.
HB 977 (pdf), sponsored by Rep. Matthew Hill (R-Jonesborough), makes Tennessee the 27th state to require patients seeking abortions to wait longer than 24 hours before having an abortion, according to (pdf) the Guttmacher Institute. At 48 hours, the waiting period is one of the longest in the nation. Opponents of the bill, including Planned Parenthood, have criticized lawmakers for crafting the legislation without consulting the medical community.
The new measure states that, barring a medical emergency, and with no exceptions for rape and incest, "no abortion will be performed until a waiting period of 48 hours has elapsed after the attending physician or referring physician has provided information" about the procedure.
However, as health advocates have noted, the information which physicians are required to provide comes from the state and is medically unfounded.
According to RH Reality Check, "In the last few years, state legislatures have been passing abortion restrictions largely based on unfounded theories that abortion is a dangerous procedure that significantly increases women's risk of developing breast cancer and mental health disorders, among other claims."
Under HB977, physicians who do not acquiesce to the new rules could face misdemeanor or felony charges. They also risk having their medical licenses revoked.
The bill "adds pointless burdens to women while doing nothing to protect them," said Planned Parenthood of the Greater Memphis Region in a statement on Monday. "It is a tool to shame and disgrace women who make the deeply personal decision to end a pregnancy. And it creates unnecessary financial and emotional hardships."
"This bill is part and parcel of the political strategy to pass laws in our state that are purported to protect women's health and safety, but in fact do quite the opposite," Planned Parenthood continued.
Gov. Haslam, a Republican, also signed a bill earlier this month that requires all clinics that perform 50 abortions or more annually to be regulated as outpatient surgery centers--a measure that has forced clinic closures in other states.
Currently, Tennessee only operates seven abortion clinics statewide. Women may have to travel 100 miles or more to reach one of those clinics, according to Anita Wadhwani of The Tennessean.
"Requiring them to make that trip twice will require time off work, child care and travel expenses that place an especially heavy burden on low-income working mothers, according to advocates who also argued that no other medical procedure has a mandatory waiting period in the state," Wadhwani writes. "Nationally, nearly two thirds of women seeking abortion already have at least one child at home."
Both of the new restrictive laws will go into effect July 1.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.