Effective immediately, abortions performed or attempted after 6 weeks are now illegal in the state of Tennessee.
The6th U.S.Circuit Court of Appeals gave the green light Tuesday morningto liftaninjunctionagainst a2020 law banning abortions after six weeks.Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery filed a motion to the court just after the Supreme Court’s decision last week, joining a handful of otherRepublican–led states inputting in motion immediate bans.
CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi Ashley Coffield told reporters this banwill essentially stopall abortions.
“The 6-week ban in Tennessee is a near-total abortion ban because most people don’t know that they’re pregnant by that point,” said Coffield.
Coffield says on top of that, the states 48-hour waiting period makes it even more difficult.
“So patients … have to get a first appointment, and then they have to wait 48 hours longer before they can get an abortion,” said Coffield.
Tennessee’s mainabortionproviders have already mostly ceased abortion servicessince the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Separately, the state has already begun the process of enacting its trigger law that will ban all abortions in the state — even those before 6 weeks — within the next month.
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