18-State Coalition Files Brief in Support of Pro-Life Tennessee Law

photo credit: Bill Oxford / Unsplash

In July, soon after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the pro-life House Bill 2263 into law, District Judge William Campbell granted a temporary restraining order against it on behalf of Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. On Tuesday, 18 states responded by filing an amicus brief in the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals to support the law.

Tennessee House Bill 2263 bans abortions except to save the mother's life after a fetal heartbeat is detected or if the abortionist knows that the mother is seeking an abortion due to the child's sex, race, or Down syndrome diagnosis.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron led the coalition of 18 states to defend Tennessee's law in a brief to the court.

A press release from the Kentucky AG's office states,

"...The 18-state coalition asks the Sixth Circuit to reverse the district court’s decision and allow the law to go into effect. The coalition writes in the brief that, 'all of the amici states have a compelling interest in seeing that States retain the general power to legislate for the well-being of their most vulnerable citizens.' Many of the states within the coalition have enacted antidiscrimination laws like Tennessee’s. 

'We’re currently in court fighting to protect Kentucky’s own abortion discrimination ban and fetal heartbeat law, and we have a duty to assist other states in their efforts to defend similar laws that protect the unborn,' said Attorney General Cameron. 'States have a compelling interest in enacting laws that protect our most vulnerable, and we believe that this interest is never more apparent than when we’re protecting unborn children from eugenics-based abortions.'"

Kentucky AG Cameron authored the brief. The states which joined in filing it include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

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