A group of advocates from the Nashville Sexual Assault Center on Feb. 28, 2023, addressed a bill to carve out exceptions to a Tennessee abortion ban.(Photo: John Partipilo)
January 22 marked the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion rights in the U.S. The anniversary should prompt us all to take a hard look at the state of reproductive healthcare in Tennessee.
A year and a half ago, the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and overturned Roe, turning the clock 50 years back on abortion access. For decades, anti-abortion extremists have been chipping away at reproductive rights in Tennessee, paving the way for the state’s abortion trigger ban — one of the strictest bans in the country.
Overnight, abortion became illegal in Tennessee, no matter what. It didn’t take long for physicians to sound the alarm, speaking up in press conferences, interviews, opinion editorials and taking out a full page ad in the Tennessean with over a thousand signatures, asking the state legislature to reconsider the law.