Religion & Law

Court Temporarily Halts Enforcement of Tennessee's Mandated Abortion Reversal Disclosures

By Howard M. Friedman

 In Planned Parenthood of  Tennessee and North Mississippi v. Slatery, (D TN, Sept. 29, 2020), a Tennessee federal district court issued a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of a Tennessee law scheduled to take effect Oct. 1 which requires abortion providers to tell patients that medication abortions, once started, can be reversed. Plaintiffs claim that this violates their 1st Amendment rights by forcing them to provide patients with inaccurate information. In temporarily restraining enforcement of the law, the court said in part:

The Court is unable to assess fully the competing expert opinions as to whether the mandated message is ?truthful and not misleading,? in the absence of the experts? testimony, adduced through direct and cross examination. That assessment must await the preliminary injunction hearing....

Nevertheless, the Court does not need to await the hearing to determine that another aspect of the mandated message is ?misleading.? The statute gives the Department of Health a period of up to 90 days in which to publish information, on its website and in printed materials, about the possibility of reversing the effects of a chemical abortion.... Section 218 requires abortion providers to tell patients that ?information on and assistance with reversing the effects of a chemical abortion? is available on the Department of Health website, when in fact, such information and assistance may not be available.

Courthouse News Service reports on the decision. [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

Full post as published by Religion Clause on October 01, 2020 (boomark / email).