Tennessee House sends 20-week abortion ban bill to governor

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam addresses state lawmakers at the state Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, Feb. 2, 2015. Haslam spoke to a joint assembly of the General Assembly to promote his Insure Tennessee proposal to extend health coverage to 280,000 low-income residents. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)
Republican Gov. Bill Haslam addresses state lawmakers at the state Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, Feb. 2, 2015. Haslam spoke to a joint assembly of the General Assembly to promote his Insure Tennessee proposal to extend health coverage to 280,000 low-income residents. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

NASHVILLE - Following a sometimes-emotional debate, the Tennessee House today voted to send a proposed 20-week abortion ban law Republican Gov. Bill Haslam for his consideration.

Voting largely along partisan lines, the GOP-controlled House took final action on the legislation, which critics charge is one of the strictest in the nation, on a 68-18 vote.

The Republican-dominated Senate previously passed the bill.

Rep. Matthew Hill, R-Jonesboro, said the bill is similar to laws in 20 other states that prohibit abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy if the fetus has been deemed to be viable.

The Tennessee bill would subject doctors to criminal penalties of up to 15 years in prison for violations.

"Not one of these 20 states have been challenged with regard to post-viability statutes," Hill said.

But Democratic critics said the bill goes too far with Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, warning "you can't put on a finite date" on viability at 20 weeks.

When asked earlier this week if he would sign the legislation into law, Haslam told reporters "we will see."

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery has previously said the legislation was "constitutionally suspect." But Slatery also noted he was prepared to defend the would-be law if there is a court challenge.

Pointing to Slatery's willingness to defend such a law, Haslam said "when it gets to us we will have those conversations both with the attorney general and with our own review of the bill before we make that decision."

The physicians' lobby, the Tennessee Medical Association, was neutral on the issue. Virtually everyone agrees post-20 week abortions are rare.

But critics say it becomes an issue when the mother's life is in danger or the fetus has serious abnormalities.

Rep. Sherry Jones, D-Nashville, charged that "viability is not 20 weeks and it depends on each pregnancy and each woman." The legislation "goes against all accepted medical standards of care," she added.

"This bill did not come from the medical community," Jones told the chambers. "So here you have a room ful of legislators making medical decisions and medical laws and there's what, two medical doctors in this House?"

The two doctors, both Republicans, supported the bill.

Hill argued the bill makes adequate exceptions for instances in which the mother's life is in danger and where the fetus could not survive leaving the womb.

"The goal of this legislation is to prevent the deliberate killing of a large group of people," Hill said.

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