Tennessee has become the 13th state to ban abortions after the Supreme Court’s decides to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the state’s six-week ban can take effect immediately. The heartbeat law protects babies from abortion from 6 weeks when the heartbeat can be detected. Meanwhile, a state abortion ban could go into effect next month that will protect babies from abortion from conception.
Both measures would make it a crime to kill a baby in an abortion and subject abortionists to up to 15 years in prison.
Yesterday, state officials told federal courts that a court order blocking a six-week abortion ban in Tennessee “is no longer warranted.” The state’s attorney general’s office urged the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to let the six-week ban go into effect “as soon as possible”, saying any delay would “cost the lives of Tennesseans and violates the state’s sovereignty”.
Planned Parenthood’s abortion companies in Memphis and Nashville were not doing abortions Monday, pending the six-week ban.
Governor Bill Lee signed the heartbeat abortion ban into law and celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday.
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“There are a lot of things that I’m very passionate about and take very personally in this job that I have, but… this was the most important thing I could do as governor,” he said.
The law only makes an exception when an abortion is necessary to prevent the woman’s death or “serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of an important bodily function”. However, it states that a woman’s mental health does not qualify for an exemption.
As LifeNews reported, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, holding a 6-3 majority decision in the Dobbs case that “the Constitution does not grant the right to abortion” — allowing states to ban abortions and protect unborn babies. The Supreme Court also ruled 6-3 uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, allowing states to restrict abortions further and remove the false viability standard.
Chief Justice John Roberts technically voted for the verdict but, in his opinion, disagreed with the reasoning, saying he wanted to keep abortion legal but with a new standard.
Texas and Oklahoma had banned abortions before Roe was destroyed and Missouri became the first state after Roe to protect babies from abortions, and South Dakota became the 2nd. Then Arkansas became the third state to protect babies from abortion and Kentucky became 4th, and Louisiana became 5th, and Ohio became 6th, and Utah became 7th, and Oklahoma became 8th, and Alabama became 9th. Yesterday Mississippi took 10th and South Carolina 11th.
Michigan, Wisconsin, and West Virginia have old pro-life laws on the books, but whether they apply and will be enforced is questionable.
Ultimately, as many as 26 states could immediately or expeditiously ban abortions and protect babies from certain death for the first time in nearly 50 years.
The 13 states with trigger laws that would effectively ban all or most abortions are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
“Abortion poses a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of any state from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey have usurped that authority. We now reject those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote.
“Roe was wrong from the start. The reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have fueled debate and deepened divisions.”
This is a milestone for the Pro-Life movement and our entire nation. After nearly 50 years of staining the moral fabric of our country, Roe v. Wade is no more.
Judges Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer wrote a joint dissent condemning the decision to allow states to impose “draconian” restrictions on women.
Polls show that Americans support abortion.
