Tennessee Republican lawmakers fail women with lack of focus on maternal care

Since our state’s abortion ban, the number of OB-GYNs considering residency in Tennessee have declined. 

That policy failure is at the root of Tennessee’s maternal mortality crisis. We have the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation, and nearly one-third of Tennessee counties are maternity care deserts, meaning they lack maternal health care providers. 

Despite these realities, Republican lawmakers have passed more restrictions on reproductive health care, including a travel ban for youth seeing abortions, while also engaging in symbolic political gestures. That’s how you end up with a monument to the “unborn,” a stone pillar that elevates miscarriages above Holocaust victims, at the Capitol. 

Report: More than half of all rural Tennessee hospitals no longer deliver babies

The monument, which is taller than the Tennessee Holocaust Memorial, paints abortion as a “deliberate attack on human life.”  Placing the anti-abortion monument next to one honoring victims of the Holocaust suggests that lawmakers see a parallel between health care and genocide, and state Republicans unveiled it on the Dobbs anniversary to make a point.

Where is the monument to the mothers you failed?

Earlier this year, Tennessee Republicans had an opportunity to move beyond symbolic statements and support legislation aimed at protecting maternal health. State Rep. Aftyn Behn and state Sen. Charlane Oliver, both Nashville Democrats introduced HB2523/SB2510, the Maternal Healthcare Protection Act. In the prior year, legislators passed a law that allows healthcare providers to refuse care on moral, ethical or religious objections.The Maternal Healthcare Protection Act would have carved out an exception to this law, so pregnant patients could always receive care.

Instead, the bill was defeated in the House Population Health Subcommittee. The committee chair, Rep. Michele Carringer, a Knoxville Republican, cleared the committee room of spectators before taking up the bill, preventing public discussion and denying testimony from anyone who had signed up to speak. Meanwhile, no significant legislation addressing maternal mortality passed during this year’s legislative session.

At some point, we must confront the reality that maternal deaths are more often the result of policy choices, not simply individual decisions. Tennessee remains one of only 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid, and state law permits forms of discrimination in healthcare settings that many other states do not.

The Tennessee Department of Health’s most recent Maternal Mortality Review Committee report found that differential treatment was a contributing factor in 37% of pregnancy-related deaths. Differential treatment occurs when doctors treat a patient differently based on race, substance abuse disorder or obesity. The report further noted that differential treatment was often linked to racial discrimination and that Black women are nearly three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes.

The Tennessee Department of Health also reported that 74% of pregnancy-related deaths in 2023 were preventable. That was the first full year after the Dobbs decision.

How many of those women would be alive today if Tennessee had made different policy choices? When will lawmakers show the same urgency for protecting the lives of pregnant women that they show for restricting abortion?

Maternal health and infant health are inseparable. When lawmakers fail to enact policies that keep pregnant people healthy and safe, they are failing the future children they claim to protect. 

Tennessee’s new Capitol monument leaves mothers we’ve lost out of the official story. If protecting life is truly the goal, then symbolic gestures are not enough. The state must be willing to invest in policies that reduce preventable maternal deaths, expand access to care and improve outcomes for both parents and children. Until then, monuments will remain a poor substitute for meaningful action.

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