‘I wasn’t allowed to get the healthcare I needed’: the women suing Tennessee for being denied abortions

K Monica Kelly had to travel to Florida for an abortion after her fetus was diagnosed with trisomy 13 – now she’s part of a group suing her state

by Carter Sherman
Feb 1, 2024

When K Monica Kelly saw that women in Texas had filed a lawsuit challenging the contours of their state’s abortion ban, she posted on Instagram to cheer them on.

“I shared how terrible I thought it was, that they weren’t able to get the proper healthcare they needed in their state,” Kelly said. “It never crossed my mind that that was actually going to happen to me soon.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/01/abortion-ban-tennessee-texas-lawsuits


More Women Denied Abortion Care Join Center’s Case Against Tennessee

Number of pregnant people harmed by U.S. state abortion bans continues to grow.

Center for Reproductive Rights
Jan 8, 2024

As the number of pregnant people harmed by state abortion bans continues to grow, four more women have joined the Center for Reproductive Rights lawsuit against Tennessee after being denied medically necessary abortion care for their severe and dangerous pregnancy complications. With today’s filing, there are now nine plaintiffs in the case, Blackmon v. State of Tennessee.

The plaintiffs added today faced pregnancy complications including devastating fetal diagnoses and life-threatening sepsis infections. Because of Tennessee’s total abortion ban, they were forced to travel hundreds of miles out of state to receive the care they needed, rather than wait until they were near death to receive abortion care in their home state.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/blackmon-v-tennessee-abortion-ban-more-plaintiffs/


Why more women are joining a lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s abortion ban

Melissa Brown, Nashville Tennessean
Jan 8, 2023

Rachel Fulton and her husband had reached the nesting phase of her second pregnancy last fall, pulling up their baby stuff from the basement to dust off and decorating the new nursery.

Despite a few concerning conditions identified early in her pregnancy, Fulton was ecstatic to bring another baby boy home to join their toddler. They named him Titus, from the Bible.

But a November appointment changed everything.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2024/01/08/tennessee-abortion-ban-more-women-are-joining-a-lawsuit-against-the-law-medical-exceptions/71962621007/


Kate Cox case reveals toll of US abortion bans on women in medical emergencies

Lawsuits from women denied the procedure despite health risks shows how bans don’t allow for complexities of pregnancy

Carter Sherman
Sat 16 Dec 2023

When Kate Cox got the news that her baby would probably only live for a few days, she went online to figure out her options. A 31-year-old mother of two living in Texas, Cox could not get an abortion, but she also knew that she did not want to make her baby suffer.

That’s when Cox came across the news that 20 Texas women had come forward to tell a court that they, like her, had been unable to get abortions in medical emergencies. Within days, Cox went public too: she became the first woman since the fall of Roe v Wade to sue for an abortion while actively pregnant.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/16/abortion-ban-lawsuits-pregnancy-complication-emergency-kate-cox


Tennessee woman runs for office after state’s abortion ban puts her life at risk

BY CRISTINA CORUJO, CBS News
NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Last week's election results in Ohio and Virginia showed abortion rights remain a powerful issue on the ballot, suggesting women rights are likely to continue to be a key topic for voters in many states. In Tennessee, terminating a pregnancy even if the mother's life is at risk is prohibited, and this has affected women like Allie Phillips, who is now running for state office in Tennessee as a result of her experience.

Phillips, a Tennessee native, never imagined she would run for elected office. She also never thought she'd be forced to leave her home state to obtain an abortion to end a pregnancy that was risking her life.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tennessee-woman-house-of-delegates-bid-abortion-ban-put-life-at-risk/


She Sued Tennessee for Denying Her an Abortion. Now She’s Running for Office.

BY CHARLOTTE ALTER
OCTOBER 12, 2023

Allie Phillips never wanted to be a politician, but she had always wanted to be a mom of two. Whenever Phillips asked her 5-year-old daughter, Adalie, what she wanted to be when she grew up, Adalie would say, "A big sister." So when Phillips found out she was pregnant again in Nov. 2022, Adalie was thrilled. "Her eyes got big and her jaw just dropped open," Phillips recalled. "Every night after that, she sang Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star to my belly. She’d kiss my belly every night before bed." Phillips and her husband planned to name the new baby Miley Rose.

But at a routine anatomy scan when she was around 19 weeks pregnant, doctors told Phillips that the fetus had significant problems with its kidney, stomach, bladder, heart, lungs, and brain. These conditions were "not compatible with life outside the womb," a doctor told Phillips. Miley Rose would likely die before birth, and the longer Phillips stayed pregnant, the worse her own health could become. These conditions were "not compatible with life outside the womb," a doctor told Phillips. Miley Rose would likely die before birth, and the longer Phillips stayed pregnant, the worse her own health could become.

Continued: https://time.com/6320148/allie-phillips-abortion-lawsuit-tennessee/


Women, doctors announce legal action against abortion bans in 3 states

The women allege they were denied abortions despite dangerous complications.

By Nadine El-Bawab
September 12, 2023

Women in Idaho, Oklahoma and Tennessee filed legal actions against their states over abortion bans, saying they were denied abortions despite having dangerous pregnancy complications.

Four women in Idaho -- Jennifer Adkins, Jillaine St.Michel, Kayla Smith and Rebecca Vincen-Brown -- and abortion providers filed a suit against the state, Gov. Brad Little, attorney general and the state's board of medicine, claiming the state's ban has "sown confusion, fear and chaos among the medical community, resulting in grave harms to pregnant patients whose health and safety hang in the balance across the state," according to a copy of the lawsuit shared with ABC News.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/women-doctors-announce-legal-action-abortion-bans-3/story?id=103055654


A year after Tennessee’s abortion ban, 14,000 people have faced limited choices, devastating consequences

Organizations nationwide pull together to offer options for unwanted pregnancies

by Sono Motoyama
August 24, 2023

In the year since Tennessee’s abortion ban went into effect on Aug. 25, 2022, about 14,000 pregnant people in the state have been forced to find other solutions for their unwanted pregnancies.

Some have driven hours to out-of-state clinics for abortions. Others have ordered and taken FDA-approved pills, with possible risk of prosecution. Still others, unable to obtain an abortion in Tennessee, have carried their pregnancies to term. Some have even turned to unsafe and ineffective methods, such as taking herbs, large amounts of alcohol or medications unintended for pregnancy termination.

Continued: https://mlk50.com/2023/08/24/a-year-after-tennessees-abortion-ban-14000-people-have-faced-limited-choices-devastating-consequences/


Tennessee woman gets emergency hysterectomy after doctors deny early abortion care

Tennessee's ban went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

By Nadine El-Bawab
May 31, 2023

Mayron Hollis said she had just started taking contraceptives when she found out she was pregnant again a few months after giving birth in February 2022. Despite the surprise, Hollis and her husband say they were excited about the pregnancy and eager to add another child to their growing family.

Hollis, 32, had no idea the excitement would turn into a fight for her baby's life and her own.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/tennessee-woman-gets-emergency-hysterectomy-after-doctors-deny/story?id=99457461


States’ divisions on abortion widen after Roe overturned

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and GEOFF MULVIHILL
March 25, 2023

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A group of Tennessee Republicans began this year’s legislative session hoping to add narrow exceptions to one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, armed with the belief that most people — even in conservative Tennessee — reject extremes on the issue.

Tennessee law requires doctors to prove in court that they were saving a woman’s life when they performed an abortion. Surely, the lawmakers thought, they could win concessions that would allow doctors to use their good faith judgment about when abortion is necessary to save a woman’s life. But after a key anti-abortion group stepped in, the lawmakers had to settle for a stricter legal standard that moves the needle very little.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-divide-republican-democratic-states-fd2e6fffffec2fdcf328d7bca1e6fd78