On abortion, no less
Most news outlets spun Thursday’s decision by a three-judge panel that Tennessee could not discipline doctors for performing medically necessary abortions as a win for reproductive rights, and that wouldn’t be wrong.
But it also takes away the argument by Democratic candidates in November’s election, who have tried to make the law a campaign issue.
The ruling didn’t change the state’s near abortion ban, but it will allow doctors who perform such necessary surgeries to be less fearful about doing them, will keep many of them from leaving the state (if, as Democrats claim, many were leaving the state) and will relieve the pressure some Republican legislators might feel about making changes — tweaks, if you will — in the law next year to make doctors feel less vulnerable.
The ruling by the panel, including by Judge Sandra Donaghy from Cleveland, said the “Medical Necessity Exception” to the ban passed in 2023 was too vague, was confusing to doctors, and might cause some of them to refuse or delay treatment.