By Julie Edwards WKRN TV
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Following the passage Amendment 1 in November, the Tennessee General Assembly can now make laws to regulate abortion in the state.
Members of the Republican-controlled legislature have begun to file bills to tighten current abortion laws.
On Wednesday, Senator Mae Beavers pre-filed Senate Bill 13, requiring “informed consent” before a woman can have an abortion.
The bill mandates that a woman’s physician “orally inform” her about a series of items related to pregnancy, child-birth, and abortion. Doctors would be required to tell women that abortion is a “major surgical procedure.”
The bill would also require that the mother be told there are agencies and services available to assist her if she decides to have the child.
Pro-choice advocate and Planned Parenthood Board Member Dr. Ellen Clayton says SB-13 is not about protecting women’s health but rather “about dissuading them from having an abortion.”
She told News 2, “It’s not to provide informed consent for them or to enhance their decision making, it’s simply to make [having an abortion] much, much harder.”
The 2015 legislative session begins Tuesday.