“When legislation is not patient-centered, it’s morally compromised to begin with,” Dr. Amy Bono, a primary-care physician, said of the bill at the time. “Politicians need to stop dictating medical care, and this bill allows politicians to take their intrusive efforts even further to dictate medical conscience.” Democratic representative Sam McKenzie also condemned the bill, saying it contradicted the medical oath to do no harm.
Speaking to a town hall in Jonesborough last week, the 35-year-old patient recounted that she was seeking care about four weeks into her pregnancy when her physician—while reviewing her medical history—told her they were uncomfortable treating an unwed person, saying it “goes against their Christian values.” Offering no referral, they told her to seek care at another practice. Now, she’s travelling to Virginia for prenatal treatment.
“Instantly, I felt my stomach drop and I knew this wasn’t right. This wasn’t okay,” she told the Nashville Banner, “I didn’t want to react in a place of anger, because I felt like that was just going to support any judgment that the provider already had against me… I said ‘thank you for your time’ and left, because if you’re not willing to provide the best care to me, regardless of the reason, I don’t want any part of this.”
The patient, who was born and raised in Tennessee, also spoke of a one-sided love she’s started to feel for her state. Under the state’s near-total abortion ban, she explained to the Banner that the idea of giving birth there terrified her, especially in the wake of what happened to Adriana Smith in Georgia. (While it shouldn’t matter either way, the patient has been with her partner for 15 years, and they have a 13-year-old child.)
Her story, which is the first publicly reported case of someone in Tennessee being impacted by the new legislation, signals even bleaker times ahead. “Denying someone essential prenatal medical care because of their marital status is discrimination, plain and simple,” said Bryan Davidson, the policy director at ACLU Tennessee. In a statement to Jezebel, he explained: “This situation clearly illustrates the harm that can come from state laws that encourage doctors to ignore professional standards when treating their patients–which is particularly dangerous when Tennessee already has the worst maternal mortality rate in the country. Religious freedom should not be used as a free pass to discriminate.”
During his first term in 2019, Donald Trump signed a conscience rule to allow health-care workers to deny services that would misalign with their own religious ideologies (it was later mostly rescinded by Joe Biden). But politicizing healthcare can have real serious consequences, and is a dangerous trend that threatens not only the integrity of the American healthcare system–but really, truly, does harm.
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