‘Fatal fetal anomalies’ bill fails in Tennessee legislature

A bill enabling physicians to perform abortions involving “fatal fetal anomalies” failed in the Tennessee legislature, forcing lawmakers to settle for a measure clarifying the dangers women must face to end a pregnancy.

Senate Bill 1425 sponsored by Sen. Richard Briggs, a Knoxville Republican, was never brought to a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, averting the effort to pass legislation enabling physicians to perform abortions for “fatal fetal anomalies” without the threat of being charged with “criminal abortion.” Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes, a Signal Mountain Republican, sponsored the House version of the bill to provide a new exception for abortions after the legislature outlawed the procedure three years ago.

In its place, the lawmakers are supporting Senate Bill 1004, which expands the conditions in which a woman could be at substantial risk for death or irreversible impairment, enabling her to have an abortion. It is set to go to the Senate floor for consideration.

The House Health Committee approved its version Tuesday on a 15-6 vote. Committee Chairman Bryan Terry, who sponsored the bill, assured lawmakers it didn’t provide new exceptions for an abortion but listed conditions doctors could use to determine whether a woman should end a dangerous pregnancy.

Terry, a Murfreesboro anesthesiologist, told colleagues that doctors could use the definitions to make a diagnosis and then decide whether an abortion would be medically necessary to save the mother’s life. All efforts would have to be made to save the baby, in keeping with the state’s abortion law. 

The Tennessee Medical Association supported the “fatal fetal anomalies” bill following an October 2024 ruling in Blackmon v. State of Tennessee in which a three-judge panel found that physicians may terminate pregnancies to save a woman’s life when she’s critically ill. The court also outlined the types of fatal fetal diagnosis that could qualify under the ruling after women who had to leave the state for abortion procedures filed suit.

The bill sponsored by Briggs and Terry, both Republicans, gives a clearer definition of the times a woman could receive an abortion, including “inevitable abortion,” a type of miscarriage in which the pregnancy ends and the uterus expels matter. It also includes any medically diagnosed condition that complicates a pregnancy to the point the woman could die from deadly problems such as ruptured membranes, “inevitable abortion,” severe preeclampsia and an infection that can result in uterine rupture or loss of fertility.

Because the matter remains in litigation, Briggs would say only that the bill headed to the Senate floor “complements” the court ruling.

Tennessee Medical Association lobbyist Julie Griffin said her group was disappointed that the initial bill failed but called the replacement measure “a step in the right direction.” She was uncertain whether the group would push the defeated bill again next year, but said “fatal fetal anomalies” remain a problem, forcing women to travel out of state for abortions to avoid the risk of life-threatening pregnancies.