The Tennessee state legislature is advancing another pro-life bill to protect women and save babies from abortions.
Tennessee legislators on Tuesday advanced a bill to ban mail-order sales of the dangerous abortion pill that kills babies and has killed dozens of women and injured countless thousands more. The legislation, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, seeks to ban mail delivery of abortion pills.
Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, introduced the bill, which would require an in-person visit before getting abortion pills because without it women’s life and health are put at risk.
“In this state, we have an opportunity to put safety measures around chemical abortion which currently allows the use of telemedicine and courier delivery, as opposed to a qualified examination and direct distribution of powerful medicines,” Smith said.
“What this bill simply does is it to establish protections for patients who, according to Planned Parenthood, could pass blood clots the size of a lemon as part of this chemical abortion,” Smith said.
The abortion industry ignores the medical experts and studies that confirm the abortion pill reversal is safe and effective for both mother and baby and the abortion pill itself is dangerous. To-date, more than 3,000 babies’ lives have been saved through the reversal procedure, according to Heartbeat International.
A recent, first-of-its-kind study found that the rate of abortion-related emergency room visits following a chemical abortion increased by more than 500% from 2002 through 2015. In the last year Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas have enacted state-level safeguards against mail-order abortion drugs, with additional states considering action.
Dr. Donna Harrison, who serves as CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) and an associate scholar with Charlotte Lozier Institute, submitted testimony on the bill in which she stated:
“Failure to perform an in-person examination can have serious consequences for the patient, including death. For example, if a woman who has an ectopic pregnancy (i.e., a pregnancy implanted in the Fallopian tube) is given mifepristone, she is in significant danger of the ectopic pregnancy rupturing, which will cause massive internal bleeding. The symptoms of a rupturing ectopic pregnancy are identical to the symptoms that a woman experiences when she has a mifepristone abortion: bleeding, cramping and severe abdominal pain. Delay in diagnosis due to thinking that these symptoms are a ‘normal’ part of mifepristone abortion can result in massive intraabdominal hemorrhage and death…the requirements of Senate Bill 456 are medically reasonable to ensure the safety of women in Georgia who are undergoing a Mifeprex abortion.”
By Steven Ertelt
