Tennessee And Nigeria Face Reckoning Over Abortion Laws

Lawsuits, stigma, and public health concerns drive renewed debate over abortion access and maternal safety in Tennessee and Nigeria.

24 October 2025

On October 23, 2025, two very different corners of the world found themselves at the center of the ongoing debate over abortion laws and the lives of women: Tennessee, USA, and Lagos, Nigeria. While their legal frameworks and cultural backdrops differ dramatically, both regions are grappling with the consequences of restrictive abortion policies, the confusion sown by vague legal exceptions, and the mounting toll on women’s health.

In Tennessee, a three-judge panel delivered a significant blow to Governor Bill Lee’s administration by ruling against the state’s attempt to end a lawsuit challenging the state’s near-total abortion ban. According to Tennessee Lookout, the lawsuit was initially brought in 2023 by a group of Tennessee OB-GYNs and women who had suffered serious medical complications during their pregnancies. The American Medical Association later joined the case, underscoring the gravity of the issues at stake for both patients and medical professionals.

Continued: https://evrimagaci.org/gpt/tennessee-and-nigeria-face-reckoning-over-abortion-laws-512744

Abortion pills by mail surge despite Texas’ bans. How long can it last? | Opinion

Bridget Grumet, Austin American-Statesman
Jan 16 , 2025

NEWARK, DELAWARE — The large cardboard box in Debra Lynch’s living room contained enough pills for 162 medication abortions. Last summer, such a shipment would last a month. Then she needed to reorder every two weeks. Now she goes through a box like this every week.

“We’re mailing a lot to Texas,” said Jay Lynch, who handles most of the packaging and postage for Her Safe Harbor, an abortion-drug-by-mail service spearheaded by his wife.
Joe Pojman, the founder and executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life
Continued: https://www.statesman.com/story/opinion/columns/2025/01/16/abortion-pill-texas-ban-law-mifepristone-misoprostol-plan-c-pills/77332833007/

Tennessee woman denied abortion after fetus’ ‘brain not attached’ slams state ban

State lawmakers ‘don’t see the mourning and the grieving that these moms’ experience after getting a heartbreaking diagnosis, Breanna Cecil tells Kelly Rissman

May 13, 2024

A Tennessee woman who was denied an abortion despite a fatal abnormality says the state’s anti-abortion laws resulted in her losing an ovary, a fallopian tube and her hopes for a large family.

“The state of Tennessee took my fertility from me,” Breanna Cecil, 34, told The Independent. She added that state lawmakers “took away my opportunity to have a family like my own biological family because of these horrible laws that they put in place.”

Continued: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/tennessee-denied-abortion-ban-lawsuit-b2529144.html

‘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

01.02.2024

Commentary

Allie Phillips

Center for Reproductive Rights

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/

08.01.2024

News

Blackmon v. State of Tennessee

Center for Reproductive Rights

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/

13.11.2023

News

Allie Phillips

Center for Reproductive Rights

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