Court lets Tennessee 6-week abortion ban take effect

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal court on Tuesday allowed Tennessee's ban on abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy to take effect, citing the Supreme Court's decision last week to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights case.

The action by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes before Tennessee's other abortion ban, known as the so-called trigger ban, is set to restrict abortion almost entirely in less than a month. Both measures would make performing an abortion a felony and subject doctors to a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Republican state Attorney General Herbert Slatery filed an emergency motion on Friday to allow the state to begin implementing the six-week ban. GOP supermajorities in the Legislature passed the law in 2020 with Republican Gov. Bill Lee's backing, and it was almost immediately blocked in federal court.

Experts have noted that at six weeks, most women don’t know they’re pregnant.

“There are a lot of things that I am very passionate about and take very personally in this job that I have, but ... this was the most important thing that I could do as governor,” Lee said while speaking virtually with anti-abortion religious leaders just hours after the Supreme Court announced its momentous ruling Friday.

The law only makes an exception when an abortion is necessary to prevent the woman's death or “serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” However, it specifies that a woman's mental health does not qualify for an exemption.

Planned Parenthood was not performing abortions at its facilities in Nashville and Memphis on Monday in anticipation of court action to unblock the six-week ban, said spokesperson Matt Anderson.

An even more restrictive ban is set to take in the coming weeks....