NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Friday signed a bill into law that bans most abortions after 20 weeks if doctors determine the fetus to be viable outside the womb through required testing.
The Republican governor insisted in a signing statement that the new law passed by the GOP-controlled General Assembly isn’t a “20-week abortion ban.”
But critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union-Tennessee, insist it largely is just that, albeit with some exceptions.
Under the new law, which takes effect July 1, doctors could face felony charges for performing an abortion on a fetus deemed viable at 20 weeks unless the mother risks death or serious damage to a major bodily function.
A physician making determinations that a fetus could not live outside the womb or that carrying one to term could pose dangers to the mother would have to get a second, concurring opinion from a doctor not associated with the first doctor’s practice.