Tennessee officials hope to overturn a District Court's ruling which could reinstate abortion as an essential service in the state during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Last Friday, U.S. District Judge Bernard A. Friedman ruled against Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s Executive Order temporarily banning medical procedures not required “to provide life-sustaining treatment, to prevent death or risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function, or to prevent rapid deterioration or serious adverse consequences to a patient’s physical condition.” This included elective surgical abortions, but Judge Friedman's ruling could prevent it from being enforced against abortionists.
Shortly after Friedman's decision, the Tennessee Attorney General's office appealed the ruling and asked Friedman to delay it from taking effect until after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals can review the case. The Tennessee government is hoping that it can prevent abortionists in the state from using valuable personal protective equipment such as medical masks and gloves to make sure they are available for doctors treating patients with COVID-19. Temporarily halting elective surgical abortions also prevents patients and abortion clinic workers from spreading COVID-19 in the cramped spaces of abortion clinics.
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