In the final meeting of the House Population Health Committee Tuesday, bills that would increase access to mental health care for teens, enshrine access to contraceptives and reverse the state’s abortion ban were quickly tabled. Much of the discussion that did take place was about HB 945/SB 793, for which several Republican House representatives crossed party lines to vote down — killing a bill involving in vitro fertilization.
Rep. Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville) said the bill was intended to protect people from unlicensed fertility doctors and limit fertility clinics' genetic testing for the kinds of complications that can occur in natural pregnancies. It would have required physicians to obtain an additional assistive reproductive technology certificate from their prospective medical boards. It would have also instituted additional requirements for laboratories that offer long-term storage of embryos.
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However, much of the debate centered on the third piece of the bill — genetic testing of embryos. The bill would have allowed testing only for fatal fetal anomalies or chromosomal deficiencies.
OB/GYN Dr. Christopher Montville of the Tennessee Fertility Institute in Franklin pointed out during testimony that the broad language in genetic testing could cause problems. Even with “normal embryos” from a chromosomal standpoint, there are other elements that contribute to a successful pregnancy, and additional testing can be useful if parents want to avoid passing down traits like that of Huntington’s disease.
“One of the great benefits of preimplantation genetic testing is avoiding unnecessary complications and using science to our advantage,” Montville said. “We're not testing for eye color or hair color — we're looking for either known genetic mutations that run in families or we're looking for chromosome issues.”
In addition, he said the certification is redundant, as clinicians are already licensed, there are federal requirements to report data, and labs are inspected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and through the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments.
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Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) pointed out that the bill would not have been able to stop what happened in Nashville in 2024 when a clinic unexpectedly closed and its leader underwent investigation for providing care without a license. In 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos created via IVF had the same rights as people after a couple sued a fertility clinic over the destruction of their frozen embryo.
Six of Williams’ Republican colleagues — Reps. Bryan Terry (R-Murfreesboro), John Gillespie (R- Memphis), John Travis (R-Dayton) and Michele Carringer (R-Knoxville) — ultimately voted against it, and it failed 4-6.
Also during the final House Public Health Committee meeting, Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) attempted to reverse Tennessee’s abortion ban and go back to the standard under Roe. v. Wade with her HB 1217. The effort failed.
HB 14 from Rep. Harold Love (D-Nashville) sought to clarify that "criminal abortion" under Tennessee’s abortion ban does not include the use of contraceptives or the disposal of embryos from IVF. It went directly to vote and failed along party lines, with Travis abstaining from voting.
Similarly, a bill from Johnson seeking to enshrine the right to contraception in Tennessee failed. The bill had already failed in the Senate, and a similar effort failed in 2024.
Former political candidate and OB/GYN Dr. Laura Andreson and other physicians did not get the chance to testify during Tuesday’s committee, following the bill being rolled from last week’s meeting. Andreson says she performed tubal sterilization more frequently following the fall of Roe.
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“Patients ask me repeatedly if I think contraception will be available to them in the future,” Andreson tells the Scene. “There's a definite fear out there that patients are not going to have the access they want, and some are going to the extreme measures to be permanently sterilized so they don't have to take that risk of an unintended pregnancy.”
However, a bill from Sen. Becky Massey (R-Knoxville), the "Fertility Treatment and Contraceptive Protection Act," passed on the Senate floor Monday. It would establish the right of people to engage in fertility treatment and contraception in the state. It is similar to Love's aforementioned bill, but without mention of abortion.
Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) was also able to pass a bill on the Senate floor Monday that would require various medical boards to develop and offer an optional course in maternal mental health, and continue to update it to account for new research. This course would be one of many that boards could accept as credit toward required continued education for physicians.
Another bill from Lamar and Rep. Caleb Hemmer (D-Nashville) that requires hospitals and birthing centers to provide information on postpartum warning signs also passed unanimously in the Senate last week and is on its way to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
