Nashville resident Kathryn Archer was 20 weeks pregnant with her second child when she was informed by her doctor of multiple critical fetal conditions, including irregular brain development and improperly developed organs. It was unlikely that the fetus would survive to birth, let alone after.
Unable to get abortion health care in her state of Tennessee , she was forced to travel out of state. After getting abortion care in Washington, D.C., Kathryn was able to get pregnant again and now has a healthy baby boy and young daughter.
In August of 2022, Tennessee began enforcing its trigger ban , which prohibits abortion with limited medical emergency exceptions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization .
This year, the state enacted a law criminalizing assistance to a minor who leaves the state to access abortion care. But in September, a federal judge blocked that part of the state’s abortion law that makes it a felony to recruit or transport a minor for an illegal abortion without parental consent, on the grounds of First Amendment-protected speech issues.