Another GOP AG Is Using Subpoenas to Try and Access Abortion Data

"Unfortunately, we have seen this intimidation tactic from the Attorney General's office before,” Briana Perry, the executive director at Healthy and Free Tennessee, told Jezebel.

By Danielle Han | August 7, 2025 | 6:50pm

Screenshot: YouTube Abortion Politics

Another GOP AG Is Using Subpoenas to Try and Access Abortion Data

In the attack on medical democracy, sleazy subpoenas have become the GOP’s chainsaw-of-choice. And apparently, this past spring, Tennessee’s attorney general wielded it against four medical groups.

According to an exclusive report by the Guardian, AG Jonathan Skrmetti’s office previously subpoenaed Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), an Ascension-run hospital, Heritage Medical Associates, and the Women’s Group of Franklin for their abortion data going back to 2022. While each clinic received different subpoenas, they were all generally asked to shell out when they’d provided an abortion, the number of procedures they’d performed, and in some cases, all abortion-related “documents and communications.” Such records could include “letters, emails, texts, social media posts, phone conversations, transcripts, videos, and even calendar entries.”

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For VUMC, specifically, the subpoena also demanded records from the hospital’s abortion committee, which decides when and which patients can receive emergency abortions. The committee was the subject of a ProPublica report in February 2024.

“Unfortunately, we have seen this intimidation tactic from the Attorney General’s office before,” Briana Perry, the executive director at Healthy and Free Tennessee, told Jezebel. “In 2023, [VUMC] was subpoenaed and violated the trust and privacy of patients seeking trans healthcare care by turning over medical records.” (Perry’s referring to U.S. v. Skrmetti, a lawsuit over whether Tennessee could ban gender-affirming care for minors; in June, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Skrmetti’s favor, saying yes, they can.)

And sure enough, we’ve also seen this intimidation tactic from other AGs. In 2024, Kentucky’s AG Daniel Cameron tried to use a grand jury to wrangle employment records from abortion providers via subpoena, though he was later blocked by the state’s court of appeals. And Missouri’s Andrew Bailey tried to do something similar in April and subpoenaed a pro-abortion organization for their private records. He, too, was blocked by a circuit court judge.

As for Tennessee, the subpoenas came as part of a larger lawsuit to expand the state’s near-total abortion ban, which permits the procedure only for medical emergencies. But under the ban, “three Tennessee women [were] denied medically necessary abortion care” and “two Tennessee physicians [were] prevented from offering their patients the medically indicated treatment” they needed.

One of the litigants, Allie Phillips, reported not being able to receive an abortion despite being told her fetus had multiple fetal anomalies. The doctor explained that if she chose to terminate her pregnancy, she would have to go out of state, which she then did, to New York. There, she found her fetus had already died in utero.

So far, it isn’t clear whether or not the four medical groups will comply, but Perry, for one, is holding out hope. “We need and strongly encourage healthcare providers and institutions to fight these subpoenas in court–it is the ethical action to take and shows patients that their well-being is a top priority,” further explains Perry. “We want to be clear that Tennesseans will continue to access the abortion care they deserve and will stand against these violations.”

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