Tennessee Senate OKs 48-hour abortion wait period

Anita Wadhwani | The Tennessean

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee House on Thursday will take up two abortion measures — a 48-hour waiting period for women and new regulations for abortion providers — approved by the state Senate on Wednesday.

Passage in the House appears likely. On Wednesday, Gov. Bill Haslam signaled his approval of the new restrictions, telling reporters he was "comfortable with the direction those bills were going in."

One measure, introduced by Republican Sen. Mae Beavers, would require women seeking an abortion to wait 48-hours after receiving in-person counseling by a physician before she could obtain an abortion.

The bill specifies the information the physician performing the abortion must provide to a woman, including:

• Confirmation of pregnancy and approximate gestational age of the fetus.

• The availability of public and private agencies available to assist her if she chooses not to have an abortion

• The risks of both pregnancy and abortion.

• If a woman is more than 24 weeks pregnant, the physician must inform her that her fetus may be viable and if a viable child is born during the course of an abortion, the physician has a legal obligation to take steps to preserve the health of the child — although there are no abortion clinics in Tennessee that provide abortions past 16 weeks of gestation.

The information requirements are waived in a medical emergency.

A physician who does not provide the information is subject to felony or misdemeanor charges, as well as revocation of a medical license.

The measure passed 27-5 in the Senate. Efforts to amend the bill to provide exceptions for victims of rape or incest failed, as did two other amendments, one that would have allowed any health care professional to provide the counseling and another that would have allowed the counseling to be conducted over the phone.

Beavers called the measure a "sensible piece of legislation" that protects the health of women. Opponents said it is was designed to place obstacles in the way of women seeking an abortion.

Jeff Teague, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee, said abortion rights advocates will scrutinize the final language of the bill, should it become law, for possible legal challenge.

"We will be looking very closely at them to see whether they do stand up to that scrutiny of 'undue burden' " — the standard for abortion restrictions set out by the U.S. Supreme Court, Teague said.

A second measure approved with no debate on Wednesday — introduced by Republican Sen. Joey Hensley — would require any facility or doctor's office performing more than 50 abortions annually to be regulated as an ambulatory surgical treatment center, a designation that comes with specific requirements about the physical building that some current abortion providers may not be able to meet.

Currently four abortion providers meet those standards. They include one clinic in Nashville, two in Memphis and one in Knoxville. A fifth abortion provider that met the standards closed in 2012 after lawmakers passed a requirement that physicians performing abortions have admitting privileges at local hospitals.

Contributing: Dave Boucher of The Tennessean