{"id":222792,"date":"2020-04-30T08:09:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T13:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=222792"},"modified":"2020-04-29T17:42:03","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T22:42:03","slug":"appeals-court-tennessee-allow-abortion-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/appeals-court-tennessee-allow-abortion-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court rules Tennessee must allow abortion during pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled last Friday that Tennessee must continue to allow abortions during the COVID-19 outbreak, despite the governor’s emergency order banning nonessential procedures for three weeks.<\/p>\n

The executive order limiting medical procedures was issued on April 8 by Gov. Bill Lee and is in place until the end of the month. Failure to comply<\/a> would be considered a Class A misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

According to the Associated Press<\/a>, Tennessee Attorney General Alex Rieger argued in court that the ban on elective surgeries was issued in order to preserve the dwindling supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors who are on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19 as well as to help slow the spread of the virus by limiting contact between individuals. Abortion, since it is not medically necessary<\/a>, was included in that ban. Rieger said that abortion is not being singled out, but is simply being treated as any other elective medical procedure is being treated. However, abortion businesses in the state want to continue committing abortions during the pandemic, putting profits above patients.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Tennessee moves to ban abortion after a heartbeat can be detected<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n