On the 13.07.2020, a federal district court in Tennessee issued a temporary restraining order, blocking portions of a law signed by Gov. Bill Lee earlier today. The ruling blocks parts of the law that ban abortion at nearly every stage of pregnancy and for reasons related to race, gender, or fetal diagnosis. The emergency restraining order was granted at the request of the Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the ACLU of Tennessee; they filed a lawsuit to block the law immediately after it passed the state legislature on June 19. The ban was in effect for less than an hour today before being blocked by the court.

Part of the law blocked today prohibits patients from obtaining an abortion based on their reason for seeking the procedure, including the potential for a Down syndrome diagnosis or the sex or race of the fetus. These “reason bans” inflict harm by peddling stigma around abortions and stereotypes of Black and Brown communities, Asian Americans, and people with disabilities. Abortion patients — like all patients — should have the right to make private medical decisions with their families and their doctors, without interference from politicians.

The restraining order comes just weeks after the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law in June Medical Services v. Russo, which would have devastated abortion access in that state and could have affected abortion access across the country.

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