The investigative website ProPublica recently posted a fascinating story based on the leaked recording of a National Right to Life webinar designed to persuade Republican Tennessee legislators not to soften the state’s abortion ban, one of the most restrictive in the country.
In Tennessee, all abortions are illegal.
As ProPublica reported, some GOP legislators in Tennessee said they originally supported the law as a symbolic gesture because it couldn’t go into effect while abortion was a constitutional right. But, of course, in June the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its own 50-year precedent.
The ProPublica story focused on Tennessee Republican state Sen. Richard Briggs, a heart surgeon, and his desire to see the draconian abortion ban amended to make “clear exceptions for rape, incest, severe fetal anomalies and cases where the pregnant patient’s life or health are at risk.”
The pushback from abortion foes was ferocious, as the leaked recording revealed. Any softening of the law would amount to retreat. Instead, the antiabortion lobbyists urged legislators to focus on promoting the stories of women who gave birth after rape or incest.