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Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi petitioned a Nashville court on Wednesday to set aside a sweeping legal demand by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to turn over the organization’s donor details, healthcare provider information and the medical records of adult and minor patients. The legal petition, filed in Davidson County Chancery Court, makes […]

A Tennessee law preventing adults from giving information to minors about legal out-of-state abortions will remain blocked, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled Thursday. ​A three-judge panel agreed with a federal district judge that barring adults from giving out information about abortions violates the First Amendment. ​Senior United States Judge Jane […]

Four years after Tennessee's trigger law made abortion a felony with limited exceptions, a statewide poll found that 72% of Tennesseans support exceptions for rape and incest and 71% support exceptions for nonviable fetuses. Despite initial support for the law, 55% opposed it once they learned how restrictive it was, reflecting a desire for more compassionate reproductive health policies in Tennessee.

Anti-abortion activist Paul Vaughn, convicted for conspiring to block access to a Mt. Juliet reproductive clinic in Tennessee, was pardoned by President Trump and his attorneys announced a seven-figure settlement with the Department of Justice. The settlement has drawn criticism from Tennessee reproductive rights advocates who condemned the government for rewarding Vaughn's actions that harassed patients and healthcare workers at the clinic.

Tennessee state Senator Richard Briggs faces a contested primary after introducing bills to clarify medical exceptions and protect doctors under the state's abortion trigger law, which activated following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Briggs lost the endorsement of Tennessee Right to Life, and his challenger accuses him of weakening the state's pro-life laws.

A Tennessee House committee rejected a bill that would have criminalized women seeking abortions by treating abortion as first-degree murder, including out-of-state procedures. The Population Health Subcommittee also defeated a maternal health bill aimed at preventing discrimination by healthcare providers, highlighting ongoing legislative debates over abortion and maternal care in Tennessee.

A Tennessee House subcommittee voted 8-2 against HB179, a bill that would have allowed doctors to perform abortions to save a mother's life or in cases of rape and incest without facing criminal charges. The measure, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Yusuf Hakeem of Chattanooga, failed to advance despite testimony highlighting the need for exceptions in Tennessee's restrictive abortion laws.

Tennessee Sen. Mark Pody will not bring a bill to the Senate that would criminalize women for having abortions, citing a lack of votes due to an amendment that treats abortion as criminal homicide. The amendment, added by Rep. Jody Barrett, would penalize women who have abortions, including those seeking treatment out of state, but Pody is waiting to see the House's action before proceeding.

Since Tennessee's near total abortion ban in 2022, residents have increasingly relied on telehealth services from out-of-state providers to obtain abortion pills, with about 750 abortions per month accessed this way in early 2025. Tennessee law criminalizes telehealth abortions and mailing abortion pills for clinicians, but not for those seeking abortions, prompting many to use providers in states with shield laws protecting such care.

A three-judge panel in Tennessee ruled against the state’s effort to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the vagueness and adequacy of medical exceptions in Tennessee’s near-total abortion ban, allowing the case to proceed. The panel also approved subpoenas for internal documents from the Tennessee General Assembly, governor, and Department of Health related to enforcement and medical exceptions of the abortion ban.

Planned Parenthood temporarily closed one of its two Memphis clinics after a federal appeals court allowed the Trump administration to block Medicaid payments to reproductive health providers like Planned Parenthood. The closure affects the clinic at 835 Virginia Run Cove, while the other Memphis clinic and locations in Nashville and Knoxville remain open, with Medicaid continuing to cover non-abortion services at these clinics in Tennessee.

In 2024, 10,020 Tennessee residents traveled out of state for abortions while an additional 5,840 obtained medication abortions via telehealth, surpassing pre-Dobbs total abortion numbers in the state. Tennessee patients increasingly rely on telemedicine services like the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, despite state laws banning mailing and prescribing abortion-inducing drugs, and have ceased seeking abortions in South Carolina following its six-week ban in 2023.