Tennessee court rules doctors who provide emergency abortions can’t be disciplined

Three judges in Tennessee issued an injunction that temporarily protects doctors in the state from being disciplined for performing medically necessary abortions.  

The temporary injunction was issued Thursday in response to a lawsuit filed more than a year ago seeking to stop Tennessee’s abortion ban and require officials to clarify the “medical necessity exemption” under the current law.   

Abortion has been banned in Tennessee since the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade with the only exception being if the procedure will save the life of the mother.  

Under the law, health care workers who provide or attempt to provide nonmedically necessary abortions could face up to 15 years in prison or fines of as much as $10,000.  

But doctors have found the language of the law unclear when it comes to what pregnancy-related conditions allow for legal medically necessary abortions.  

And the judges agreed.  

“The court finds that the issue of which conditions, and the timing of when they present and escalate to life-threatening conditions, constitute medical emergencies within the Medical Necessity Exception is demonstrably unclear,” the lawsuit reads.  

The judges’ ruling outlines a set of conditions that now qualify as medical exemptions to the state’s abortion ban including premature rupture of the amniotic sac before birth and fatal fetal diagnosis that could lead to infection, uterine rupture or loss of fertility.  

The judges said because the ruling is being made in a chancery court, they do not have the power to entirely block the criminal statute in the state’s abortion ban.  

So, while doctors are protected from having their licenses revoked by the state medical board, they could still face criminal charges if they perform abortions deemed not medically necessary.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the seven women and two doctors who filed the lawsuit, called the ruling “a win for pregnant patients” in Tennessee.  

“Our hope is that the court’s clarification of Tennessee’s abortion ban will encourage Tennessee physicians to return to performing the essential health they’ve been trained to provide,” Linda Goldstein, senior counsel at the center, said in a statement.