This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and the Nashville Scene. The Nashville Banner is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on civic news. Over the summer, the Banner sent out a community survey to ask what issues mattered most to readers in this election cycle. Visit nashvillebanner.com for the rest of the Banner’s community-focused series and 2024 voter guide.
Reproductive health and rights are top of mind for many Tennesseans heading into the Nov. 5 election. A Vanderbilt poll in May shows that most registered voters in Tennessee consider themselves “definitely or somewhat” in favor of abortion rights.
But those views are not represented by the Republican-supermajority legislature, and a number of Democratic candidates running this November are trying to change that.
How We Got Here
In June 2022, the right to abortion in the United States fell when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In August of that year, Tennessee was one of 13 states where a trigger ban went into effect, effectively outlawing abortion in almost all cases. Nearly a year later, on May 3, 2023, the Tennessee legislature passed a bill making an exception for ectopic and molar pregnancies as well as to prevent the death or “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” of a pregnant person.
In the time between when the trigger ban went into effect and when the bill providing for a few exceptions was passed, many pregnant people were forced to wait as their conditions worsened to receive life-saving care, resulting in at least one case of an emergency hysterectomy. State reports on maternal mortality and morbidity for that period are not yet available but may offer a clearer picture of the law’s effects. Meanwhile, Tennessee has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country. Nearly one-third of Tennessee women lack access to adequate maternity care, and more than 27 percent live more than half an hour from a birthing center.
In the last legislative session, more than 40 pieces of legislation containing the word “abortion” were introduced. On the Democratic side, there were measures to ensure that contraception was not deemed abortion, that IVF was protected and that doctors who performed them on children under the age of 13 — the age of consent in Tennessee — were exempted from criminal abortion charges. None of them passed. Republican legislators, however, passed measures to criminalize helping a minor get an abortion, prohibit local governments from spending money on “criminal” abortions and exempt treatment of ectopic and molar pregnancies from the abortion ban.
Where Do Our Elected Officials Stand?
Many Democrats running for office see this election as one of life and death for women in the state.
“It’s a trifecta of terror for Tennessee … at the top of the ticket,” says state Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) referring to rape allegations against Donald Trump and his conviction for sexual abuse. “And for VP, you’ve got a guy who believes women should stay with their abusers, who believes women with no children should have less say in society … and you’ve got Marsha Blackburn, who voted against the Violence Against Women Act.”
Johnson is vying to unseat Republican Blackburn for one of Tennessee’s U.S. Senate seats in the general election.
“We live in a state where a 10-year-old who is a victim of rape is forced to carry the rapist’s baby, and we know that children are two times more likely to die in childbirth than adults,” says Johnson. “It’s risk upon risk upon risk.”
Tennessee’s nearly total abortion ban remains intact — and the DCS is now prohibited from requiring immunizations for foster parents
Among those in Tennessee who cite reproductive health as the primary reason for their candidacy are Dr. Laura Andreson, running against incumbent state Rep. Jake McCalmon in House District 63; Allie Phillips, running against incumbent state Rep. Jeff Burkhart in House District 75; and Maryam Abolfazli, running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
“We have two choices,” says state Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville). “Whether we have bodily autonomy in the future or not. And there is only one side that is championing that, and that is ‘pro-choice’ Democratic candidates.”
“We are already in a situation where reproductive rights have been taken away [in Tennessee], and that has nothing to do with the ‘pro-life’ mantra — it’s about control and misogyny,” says state Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville). “This is the most important election of our time, but it’s particularly important for women who’ve already lost agency in this state.”
The following Tennessee Republicans, including all of the women Republican legislators, declined or did not respond to the Banner’s requests for comment: state Sens. Paul Rose, Becky Massey, Mark Pody, Janice Bowling, Dawn White and Debra Moody; state Reps. Mary Littleton, Iris Rudder, Susan Lynn, Patsy Hazlewood, Michele Carringer, Elaine Davis, Rebecca Alexander, Esther Helton-Haynes, Jeff Burkhart and Jake McCalmon; as well as U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles and U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
“I have no comment, I don’t know the answer, I’m not willing to talk about it,” Rep. Rudder told the Banner.
Rep. Lynn said she was too busy to speak.
Nationwide, Republican legislators have downplayed abortion in their campaigns this cycle.
What Could Change After November?
Since Roe was overturned, what can legally be done at the legislative level with a Republican supermajority is narrow. Democratic lawmakers say their first focus will be on passing more exceptions to the abortion ban.
Sen. Oliver says she would push for an exception for rape and incest, which she calls “the least we can do.” But she says she’s also concerned that Republican lawmakers would attempt to curb other aspects of reproductive health.
“Roe was never the end — it was always the beginning of trying to take away women’s bodily autonomy,” she says. “They are going to come for contraception and IVF.”
All of the Democratic lawmakers from Tennessee who spoke to the Banner echoed these concerns.
Rep. Johnson says she would pass a bill that provides a “true exception” for the health of the pregnant person. Currently, the law states that doctors must use “reasonable medical judgment” to determine whether the life of the pregnant person is at risk. This is a legal term championed by anti-abortion lobbyists, which would allow a doctor’s decision to be challenged after the fact by an expert witness in a court of law. Democrats and many doctors advocated for the term “good faith medical judgment,” which would allow doctors more leeway.
“You’ve set up a situation where the closer to death a woman is, the safer the doctor is, and that is disastrous,” Johnson says.
And given the abortion ban at the state level, Democratic lawmakers say the outcome of the presidential race would be particularly consequential for reproductive rights in Tennessee.
“If Kamala Harris wins and if Congress changes in her favor, that can also predict what we can do here in Tennessee,” says Oliver. “We’ll have allies at the federal level protecting women’s rights.”
Campbell worries about the converse, saying that should Trump be elected and Project 2025 go into effect, Tennesseans could lose the right to emergency contraception, and see sending pills for medication abortion by mail criminalized nationwide.
“It would allow the state to prosecute local officials who protect doctors and women,” she says, “and that is terrifying.”
Misconceptions About Biology and a Legislature ‘Immune to Advocacy'
As a physician, Republican state Sen. Richard Briggs brings a medical understanding to his work that most of his colleagues don’t share. He says his focus next session will be on trying to add more medical exceptions to the ban. He cites pregnancy complications that, when left until the life of the pregnant person is in danger, can result in permanent infertility even if the doctor manages to save their life.
“So either her life is endangered, or the state is forcing her involuntarily to be sterile,” Briggs says.
He also says he’d like to add an exception for what he termed “futile pregnancies,” in which the fetus will either die in utero or will only live a few minutes to a few days, often in extreme pain or distress. The likelihood of a pregnant woman developing such complications, he says, increases the older a person is. Therefore, because many are having babies later in life, Briggs says, doctors will likely see more and more instances of these kinds of outcomes.
“If those things aren’t treated, you’re denying that woman the ability to ever have a child,” he says. “That’s what the problem is, and I don’t think people understand that.”
Briggs is not the only legislator who fears his colleagues do not fully understand the implications of some of the bills they write. Johnson says the framing of abortion as a decision taken lightly by women is a misrepresentation.
“Having an abortion is one of the most difficult decisions we can make,” she says. And as for abortions later in pregnancy, Johnson says, “no one decorates their nursery and then decides to abort at nine months. Such abortions are emergencies with either the fetus or the woman.”
Oliver goes on to say that abortion itself is far more widespread than people understand, because people don’t talk about it for fear of being stigmatized.
“I tell people, ‘You know someone who’s had an abortion,’” Oliver says. “It happens way more often than you know.”
Though Briggs is more aligned with many of his Democratic colleagues when it comes to exceptions to Tennessee’s abortion law, he doesn’t feel Democrats will be able to pass legislation in a Republican-controlled legislature.
“You can vote for a Democrat, but you’re basically throwing your vote away — we are a supermajority-Republican legislature, and a Democrat is not going to get anything passed that is controversial like that,” he says, acknowledging that his Republican colleagues are unlikely to pass a bill sponsored by a Democrat regardless of whether they agree with its content.
Chancery court ruling adds several carve-outs for health of mother
Johnson has another take: “This is exactly what gerrymandering gets you: more and more extreme legislators, because they don’t worry about having to beat a Democrat — they just know they have to fire up that red-meat base.”
Advocates have also decided it’s no use trying to change minds in the legislature.
“Our position is that the legislature is far too extreme and immune to advocacy, so we have to start flipping legislative seats to get anywhere with reproductive health,” says Ashley Coffield, a member of the board of directors for Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood.
She says her group’s focus is on breaking the Republican supermajority ahead of redistricting in 2030.
Following the Banner’s initial publication of this story in September, a three-judge panel ruled in Davidson County Chancery Court that Tennessee doctors who provide abortions during a medical emergency to protect the life of the mother will not be punished.
Diving into the Nov. 5 matchups for U.S. Senate, U.S. House and more
