UPDATE: The Senate is now scheduled to vote on SB 1180 on Monday, May 1 during the 3:00 PM session UPDATE: The House is scheduled to vote on HB 1189 on Wednesday, May 3. Legislation to protect viable unborn children from abortion in Tennessee was moved forward yesterday (Wednesday, April 19)  7-2 following a lengthy debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Testimony may be viewed here (please either click on SB1180 below the video screen or move the video forward to 20:04.) Tennessee Right to Life expresses gratitude to committee members voting in support of SB 1180 by Sen. Joey Hensley, M.D. including Chairman Brian Kelsey, and Senators Mike Bell, Janice Bowling, Jon Lundberg, Doug Overbey, Kerry Roberts, and John Stevens.  Pro-abortion Senators Lee Harris and Sara Kyle voted in opposition. Please Give to Help Defray the Expenses of Expert Testimony & Legal Research Continue reading

TN Infants Protection Act Senate and House Committee Votes Now Scheduled for Wednesday, April 19 Senate Judiciary Committee Passes TN Infants Protection Act 7 - 2! House Finance Subcommittee Passes TN Infants Protection Act by a Voice Vote! If you called or emailed before, please do so again.  Pro-abortion activists are threatening to fill the committee rooms in opposition to state law protecting viable unborn children! The House Finance Subcommittee and the Senate Judiciary Committee have both delayed a vote on the Tennessee Infants Protection Act until tomorrow, Wednesday, April 19.  The fate of priority protective legislation this session continues to rest with pro-life advocates across the state.  Will you make your voice heard? The Tennessee Infants Protection Act (HB 1189 / SB 1180) would prohibit abortions beginning at 24 weeks when viability is presumed.  The bill would also require viability assessments for unborn children beginning at 20 weeks gestation before an abortion can be performed.  If the child is determined to be viable (able to live outside the womb with or without medical assistance), the abortion would be prohibited. Continue reading

TN Infants Protection Act Faces Critical Committee Votes on Wednesday, April 19   Click here to contact the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Click here to contact the House Finance Subcommittee.    The fate of priority protective legislation this session rests with pro-life advocates across the state.  Will you make your voice heard? The Tennessee Infants Protection Act (HB 1189 / SB 1180) would prohibit abortions beginning at 24 weeks when viability is presumed.  The bill would also require viability assessments for unborn children beginning at 20 weeks gestation before an abortion can be performed.  If the child is determined to be viable (able to live outside the womb with or without medical assistance), the abortion would be prohibited. Recently Tennessee's Attorney General called the Act "constitutionally suspect," in part due to lack of broad "health" exceptions which would allow late term abortions for women who suffer "mental and emotional harm" from carrying the pregnancy to term.  Continue reading

Tennessee Right to Life has become aware that, due to an ongoing shortage of judges in the Middle Tennessee District Federal Court, a Michigan judge has been named to oversee the challenge of Tennessee's pro-life laws.  The lawsuit Adams & Boyle v. Slatery is brought by independent owner-operators of private abortion facilities in Bristol, Nashville and Memphis and seeks to strike common-sense provisions requiring informed consent and a 48-hour waiting period for women and girls considering abortion, hospital admitting privileges for abortion providers and health department inspection and licensing requirements for abortion facilities in Tennessee. In December 2015, by agreement of both parties, Judge Kevin Sharp agreed to place the case on hold pending the outcome of the Texas case with similar issues being taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court (Whole Woman's Health.) That case was decided in June 2016 with the challenged admitting privileges law and abortion facility standards being struck down in Texas. Judge Sharp announced his retirement from the District Court effective April 15, 2017. Now, Michigan Senior Federal District Judge Bernard A. Friedman, by special designation, has asked both parties to prepare for trial.   Continue reading

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 4, 2017 WASHINGTON – The Trump Administration reinstated a policy Monday evening directing United States foreign assistance dollars away from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on the basis that its activities in China are complicit with that nation's coercive population control program, the implementation of which includes forced abortion and involuntary sterilization. United States funding will be directed instead to other family planning and health programs not involved in China's population control program. "We congratulate President Trump and his administration for making it abundantly clear the United States will not support a United Nations agency that cooperates in China's brutally repressive population control policies," said National Right to Life President Carol Tobias. "I heartily applaud what we at National Right to Life are seeing from this pro-life administration." Continue reading

TN Infants Protection Act Committee Vote / Pro-Life Women's Day on the Hill on Tuesday Contact House Health Committee Members Today! Please encourage the House Health Committee members to protect Life and vote Yes on HB 1189.   Click here to email them today! The Tennessee Infants Protection Act (House Bill 1189 sponsored by Rep. Matthew Hill) seeks to: Require viability assessment beginning at the 20th week of pregnancy to measure gestational age, weight, or other factors to determine viability of the unborn child; Define viability in state law as "the state of fetal development when the unborn child is capable of sustained survival outside of the womb, with or without medical assistance;" Establish presumption in state law that an unborn child of at least 24 weeks gestation (LMP) is viable and must be protected by law; Recognize current U.S. Supreme Court doctrine to avoid an untimely legal challenge; and, Mirror 2011 Ohio statute which is in effect and has never been challenged. The House Health Committee will hear the Pro-life bill at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, March 28 in Room 16 of Legislative Plaza. Continue reading

Pro-Life Tennesseans Have Come So Far Now, Let's Stay the Course and Protect Amendment 1 Please encourage your state legislators to work with Tennessee Right to Life in support of meaningful pro-life proposals which strengthen our state's abortion laws----not threaten them.  Click Here to Contact Members of the TN House Health Subcommittee Today! Pro-life Tennesseans made history in 2014 when voters passed pro-life Amendment 1.  Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood supporters immediately filed suit in federal court claiming that the state's method of counting votes violated the rights of pro-abortion voters.  District Federal Chief Judge Kevin Sharp agreed and ordered a recount and suggested the possible voiding of election results. Continue reading

February 16, 2017   Legislation Measure would nullify last-minute gift from Obama to Planned Parenthood By Dave Andrusko The House of Representatives today voted 230-188 to nullify an 11th hour Obama rule preventing states from redirecting Title X funds away from Planned Parenthood. H. J. Res. 43, sponsored by Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), would use the Congressional Review Act to address Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services’ regulation designed to prevent states from redirecting Title X funds away from unsuitable organizations such as Planned Parenthood. The measure now goes to the Senate. The last minute gift to Planned Parenthood took effect on January 18–literally with just two days left in Obama’s presidency. Continue reading

For immediate release: Wednesday, November 23, 2016 ABORTIONS CONTINUE DOWNWARD TREND WASHINGTON – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released its annual "Abortion Surveillance Report," for 2013. The report indicates that the number of abortions continues to decline. Relying on reports from state health departments, the CDC reported 664,435 abortions for 2013. While it provides a snapshot into the downward trend in abortions, this figure does not provide a complete picture of abortion in the United States as it does not include abortion data from California, the nation's most populous state, New Hampshire and Maryland. "The decline in the number of abortions, and in the abortion rates and ratios, is a clear indication that pregnant women are increasingly less likely to see abortion as the desired solution to an unexpected pregnancy," said Randall K. O'Bannon, Ph.D., National Right to Life director of education and research. "Right-to-life legislative, educational and outreach efforts to increase awareness of the unborn child's humanity certainly continue to play a critical role in the abortion decline."  Continue reading