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Tennessee's abortion trigger law is going into effect. Here's what it means

The state legislature passed The Human Life Protection Act in 2019, which makes providing abortion treatments a felony in the state.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, abortions effectively become illegal in Tennessee when the state’s trigger law goes into effect.

The state legislature passed The Human Life Protection Act in 2019, which makes providing abortion treatments a felony in the state.

Since it would be a felony, starting Aug. 25, people who give abortion treatments could lose voting rights and face several other consequences, including fines or prison time. It allows abortion treatments if the mother's life would be at risk, but specifically excludes cases where a provider treats someone by giving them an abortion because they could attempt to kill themselves. Abortions in those cases would be illegal.

It also specifically does not try to punish women who receive abortion treatments.

The law is different from the state's "Heartbeat Bill," which creates additional restrictions on abortion treatments. That law went into effect in July and makes abortion treatments illegal six weeks after gestational age if a fetus has cardiac activity. It also outright bans treatments after eight weeks of gestational age.

Some state lawmakers have raised an alarm that the ban does not provide exceptions for victims of rape or incest. If they get pregnant due to those crimes, they may need to either carry the fetus to term or leave the state for abortion treatments.

Democratic lawmakers have said they plan on introducing several bills during the next legislative session to expand the list of exemptions under the trigger law, as well as adding patient-doctor privacy protections for telehealth care.

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