Abortion in Tennessee is illegal from fertilization except to "prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman".[1][2] Tennessee is one of four states which prohibit abortion in their state constitution; alongside Alabama, Louisiana, and West Virginia.
The ban took effect on August 25, 2022, thirty days after the Tennessee Attorney General notified the Tennessee Code Commission that Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24, 2022.[3][4][5][6] Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, it became the only state with no direct exception in case of risk to the pregnant individual's life; rather, there was an affirmative defense included in the ban, meaning that someone who performed an abortion could be charged with a felony, but only had an opportunity to prove that the procedure was necessary — either to prevent the patient from dying or to prevent serious risk of what the law calls "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."[7]
The number of abortion clinics in Tennessee decreased over the years, with 128 in 1982, 33 in 1992, and 7 in 2014. There were 12,373 legal abortions in 2014, and 11,411 in 2015.
The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 53% of people from Tennessee said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.[8]