Ask an obstetrician, or really any experienced medical doctor, to read the language of Tennessee’s trigger law, which could go into effect any day now, and here’s what they’ll likely say: it’s so vague, so . . . not medical, that doctors trying to abide by the law (or be charged with a felony, punishable by 15 years in prison and a fine up to $10K) won’t know how to do it.

That’s par for the course for Tennessee’s current legislature, which has never let facts or data get in the way of their radical agenda. Unfortunately, this law—written by the Tennessee Right to Life, not by an expert in obstetrics and gynecology—will have harmful, potentially fatal, consequences:

• Women with wanted pregnancies will suffer or die because doctors will be afraid to provide abortions to save their lives.
• Women with unwanted pregnancies will suffer or die because they’ll get the unsafe abortions they can manage to get.
• Women will also lose their lives in other ways—forced by pregnancy to remain in grinding poverty or abusive relationships.

Most women seeking an abortion are already mothers. The main reason they give for seeking an abortion is economic. A government wanting to reduce abortion rates should invest in 1) programs to prevent unwanted pregnancies and 2) programs that make it easier for an economically struggling woman to raise a child.

 When abortion is medically necessary, politicians should stay out of it altogether.

Allison
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