Tennessee advances 6-week abortion ban, lawsuit filed

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Amid nationwide unrest and a global pandemic that wrecked the state budget, Tennessee lawmakers advanced one of the strictest abortion bans in the country as most Tennesseans were asleep Friday and largely unaware the GOP-dominant General Assembly had taken up the controversial proposal.

The bill's passage shocked Democratic lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates who had been assured for weeks that the anti-abortion measure would not be considered in the Senate.

Just hours after lawmakers adjourned Friday, an emergency lawsuit had already been filed seeking to block the implementation of the measure.

Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights — the plaintiffs in the case — declared that Tennessee was the first state to pass an abortion ban since the coronavirus outbreak hit the United States.

Gov. Bill Lee is expected to sign the bill “in the coming days,” according to his office.

Republicans were able to squeeze the anti-abortion measure through as last-minute negotiations stalled between the House and Senate on Thursday. Senate leaders had initially promised earlier this month only to consider coronavirus- or budget-related proposals, but eventually conceded to consider a handful of others in order to finalize a new spending plan for fiscal year 2020-21.

“People are going to wake up tomorrow and we will have passed a bill that we said we weren’t going to take up,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville had argued in opposition early Friday.

Under the bill, abortions would be banned once a fetal heartbeat is detected — about six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant. Similar legislation has been enacted in other states, such as Mississippi and Georgia, but has been blocked by legal...