Author
‘If you’re pregnant you shouldn’t travel here’
Reproductive rights advocates knew from the start there would be tremendous challenges for Tennessee women seeking abortion access across state lines once the procedure was banned here. One year after the U.S .Supreme Court ended federal protections for abortion, advocates say those challenges have been far greater than anyone anticipated. Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and Northern […]
A VP visit, a national clergy rally and denouncements follow expulsion of two Tennessee lawmakers
The reactions have been swift. A day after Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives took the extraordinary step of expelling two Black freshman lawmakers, Vice President Kamala Harris quickly scheduled a trip to Nashville to meet with the men, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, and Rep. Gloria Johnson, who was spared from ouster. State […]
In West Tennessee, a group of Black farmers take on Tyson Foods
Brenda Scott’s father came to west Tennessee as a sharecropper. By 1971 — as a result of hard work and government loans — he had 129 acres of his own, some of which his descendants occupy today. His adult children and grandchildren belong to an enclave of Black farming families that have lived in Henderson […]
Amid uncertainty and anger, Tennessee’s abortion ban takes effect
Tennessee on Thursday became the latest state in the nation to ban abortion, implementing a strict new law with no exceptions for rape, incest or fatal fetal anomalies while subjecting doctors who choose to perform lifesaving abortions to the risk of criminal prosecution. The state’s Human Life Protection Act is among the toughest abortion bans […]
6th Circuit lifts injunction on Tennessee’s 6-week abortion ban
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a block on Tennessee’s 6-week abortion ban Tuesday, allowing the 2020 near-total ban on abortions to take effect and effectively ending access to the nearly all abortions in Tennessee. The court’s decision means the so-called “heartbeat” abortion measure is law in Tennessee, weeks ahead of the state’s “trigger” […]