No doctor in Tennessee has been charged yet for performing an abortion after the state's 2019 near ban went into effect last year. That's the good news.
The better news is that a bill passed 83-11 by the state House Monday means doctors may not have to worry if they perform such a procedure in the future to save a mother's life.
We wish there were never a need for any abortion. But the idea that some people, and some states, promote such procedures -- and call it health care -- up until near full-term delivery is reprehensible.
However, Tennessee's 2019 law left little room for error. After the law went into effect, some doctors who could have been charged over performing a procedure involved in a miscarriage or for saving the life of a woman endangered by a pregnancy were no longer willing to act.
Sure, they had a legal procedure called "affirmative defense" that they could fall back on. But the risks, the time involved and the costs would be significant.
The bill passed Monday adds two exceptions to the law -- one for ectopic or molar pregnancies and the other for cases in which, in a doctor's "reasonable medical judgment," an abortion is necessary to prevent serious injury or death to the mother.
It strips out language from the original measure, which also included exceptions for "medically futile pregnancies" and lethal fetal anomalies.
Some abortion opponents still say there should be no exceptions, and most abortion rights supporters say the bill doesn't go far enough.
But we believe adding such exceptions to the law -- on which Tennessee Right to Life concurs (after opposing the original bill) -- moves closer to the thinking of most Tennesseans on abortion. If the exceptions for rape and incest were added, we feel it would get even closer to where the majority of state residents who are opposed to abortion in general are.
However, the Republican-dominated House voted down several Democratic amendments Monday that would have done that.
One also would have changed the charge for doctors from a felony to a misdemeanor, and another would have made the rape-incest exception apply only to minors whose pregnancies are at 22 weeks or fewer.
The latter amendment got the attention of state Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain.
"Twenty-two weeks can still be a viable pregnancy," she said.
We appreciate the leadership of state Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes on the bill, HB883. She serves a largely conservative district and could have determined that sticking to the 2019 law would be the safest route for her. But, as a nurse, she has said she was determined not to see doctors hung out to dry if they performed what amounts to a life-saving procedure.
"This bill provides better clarity and returns to normal judicial practice -- innocent until proven guilty," Haynes said. "It protects the mother's life and the life of the baby."
Rep. Sabi Kumar, R-Springfield, a physician, thanked Helton-Haynes for sponsoring the legislation, noting its divisiveness, and later told Times Free Press reporter Andy Sher how critical the need to act was for the mother and for doctors.
"[T]here has been a tremendous burden on the medical community," he said. "... They were under threat of prosecution, financial ruin."
The bill next goes to the Senate, where Speaker Randy McNally, like Gov. Bill Lee, has felt the 2019 law is adequate to protect women and doctors. It was to be debated in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
According to a January New York Times analysis, Tennessee was one of only three states (Idaho and North Dakota were the other two) with abortion bans that did not have exceptions for the life of the mother. Twenty-one states had abortion bans with exceptions for the life of the mother.
The analysis also showed that Tennessee was one of eight states that did not offer an exception to a mother with severe health risks. Sixteen states that had abortion bans did offer the exception.
Six states with abortion bans, including Georgia and Mississippi, add exceptions for rape or incest, and seven states, including Georgia, Alabama and Florida, add exceptions for likely fatal birth defects.
We hope the Senate will take the state House's measured route, leaving the state with a policy that is in line with the feelings of many of its conservative residents who still applaud the outlawing of most abortions.