Tennessee must continue to allow abortions despite a temporary ban on non-essential medical procedures designed to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, the Associated Press reported Saturday.
Gov. Bill Lee had issued an emergency order on April 8 banning those procedures for three weeks.
But US District Judge Bernard Friedman said the defendants failed to prove that any appreciable amount of personal protective equipment, or PPE, would be saved if the ban is applied to abortions.
Attorneys representing several state abortion clinics argued by telephone Friday that Tennessee women will face immediate harm if the ban on abortions is not lifted.
Alex Rieger, arguing for the Tennessee attorney general’s office, said abortions are not being singled out but treated like any other procedure that is not necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury.
Rieger said the goal of the ban is to preserve the limited supply of PPE for doctors fighting COVID-19 and to help prevent the community spread of the disease by limiting patient-provider interactions. The two sides disagreed over whether halting abortions would meet or undermine that goal.
Several other states are grappling with similar issues. Judges in the past week have ruled to allow abortions to continue in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Ohio and Texas.
Tennessee’s Republican governor Lee often references his Christian faith and has said he wants to enact some of the strictest abortion laws in the nation, including banning women from undergoing the procedure once a fetal heartbeat is detected.