NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Medical professionals in Tennessee say doctors are leaving the state. It’s a part of a nationwide movement where many of them are begging hospitals for help with key decisions in the abortion conversation.
This week State Senator Heidi Campbell raised the question to Governor Bill Lee and Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti of what is being done to support both doctors and women during this time.
Dr. Katrina Green, an emergency medicine specialist here in Nashville says Tennessee has lost doctors in the confusion of post Roe v. Wade and she's concerned that it can get much worse.
Both comments are in response to a new Washington Post analysis on the nationwide issue. Critics say hospitals have failed to provide specific guidance or policies to help doctors navigate high-stakes decisions over how to interpret new abortion bans — leading to situations where patients are denied care until they are on the brink of permanent injury or death.
They also mentioned that doctors are making life-or-death decisions at great personal risk, and hospital administrators are trying to figure out untested legal terrain and political pressure from lawmakers, and fears of losing funding.
Tennessee is on a list of 25 states where all post-Roe abortion bans in effect include medical exceptions. The exceptions are different, but Tennessee and Kentucky use language like “to avert the death of a pregnant woman or to prevent serious risk of a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”
Due to numerous cases of serious injury, this has caused debate in state legislatures across the country, several high-profile lawsuits and a standoff with Biden administration officials who say the procedure should be covered by emergency care laws.
Medical professionals say something must be done before more lives and more doctors are gone in Tennessee.
