Tennessee Medical Exceptions Case Hearing Scheduled for April 4

The Center for Reproductive Rights will present arguments on April 4 in Blackmon v. State of Tennessee, a case brought on behalf of seven women denied abortion care and two physicians.  The case challenges the medical necessity exception to Tennessee’s total abortion ban.  

(Photo: Nicole Blackmon, lead plaintiff in the case.)

Clarifying the exception would confirm that physicians can provide abortion care when medically necessary to preserve a patient’s life or health without waiting for patients to be acutely ill.

The lawsuit also seeks to confirm that the law’s exception permits abortion for cases of fatal fetal diagnoses that pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health.

The seven plaintiffs denied abortion care faced serious pregnancy complications that put their health, lives and future fertility at risk and were forced to either remain pregnant or travel out of state to obtain care. The two OB-GYN plaintiffs joined the lawsuit because the state’s abortion ban impedes their ability to offer their patients the nationally recognized standard of care in obstetric emergencies and threatens them with imprisonment when they provide such care in good faith. 

In addition to the Tennessee lawsuit, the Center has filed lawsuits and complaints in Texas, Idaho and Oklahoma on behalf of physicians and dozens of women denied medically necessary abortion care.  

The April 4 hearing, which will take place at the Tennessee Twelfth Judicial District Court in Nashville at 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET, is scheduled to be live streamed on the court’s YouTube page here.

• Medical Exceptions to State Abortion Bans: Center Lawsuits and Complaints