NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has issued an update saying that the discarding of embryos outside of a woman's body does not qualify as an abortion under the state's new law.
This was a topic that had many IVF patients concerned initially. Some raised the question that amid the abortion ban, if they were to discard their unused embryos after having a baby, would their provider be charged with a felony?
According to the Attorney General: No.
"Under Tennessee's Human Life Protection Act, "[a] person...commits the offense of criminal abortion" by "perform[ing] or attempt[ing] to perform an abortion."
According to the law, performing an abortion is using a substance or device to terminate the pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant.
And to be 'pregnant', a woman must have a "living unborn child within her body."
The Attorney General continued stating that disposing of an embryo created "outside" the women's body that has never been transferred to her body does not qualify as an "abortion".
