All-Male Subcommittee Tries to Ban Abortion on International Women’s Day
A Tennessee committee comprised entirely of men announced today that it will hear a bill that would outlaw abortion and turn citizens into bounty hunters.
AbortionPolitics
Today, with less than 24 hours’ notice, the Tennessee House Health Subcommittee announced it would hear HB 2779, a bill that would completely ban abortion at any stage of gestation and allow for abortion providers and patients’ loved ones to be sued for $10,000. (And it happens to be International Women’s Day, though the bill would be egregious and draconian and offensive regardless.)
The language released with the hearing’s agenda indicated the bill is akin to the successful abortion ban in Texas, in that it arms anyone in the state—even without connection to the patient—with the right to sue an abortion provider, someone who “aids and abets an abortion,” or someone who “intends to aid and abet an abortion.” Though the amendment, sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Alexander (R), would allow physicians to perform abortions in certain instances that are considered life-threatening, the exception would no longer apply if the risk to the patient’s life is self-inflicted (ex: suicide or self harm). It also does not include exceptions for rape and incest, nor fetuses that have been diagnosed with a severe anomaly.