Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a law requiring fetal remains to be cremated or buried in Tennessee, according to ABC24.
SB0828 would require certain medical providers to bury or cremate fetal remains from a surgical abortion. The bill “requires an abortion facility to pay for and provide for the cremation or interment of the fetal remains from a surgical abortion performed at that facility,” according to the bill’s text.
Tennessee will soon become the latest state to require certain medical providers to cremate or bury fetal remains from surgical abortions under legislation recently signed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee. https://t.co/nVqmamsU0Z
— Times Free Press (@TimesFreePress) May 12, 2021
Lee signed the bill on May 6, and the measure is expected to be implemented starting July 1, according to ABC24. (RELATED: Abortion Doctor Who Hoarded Fetuses Faulted WWII Bombings For His ‘Perception’ Of Humanity, Filmmaker Says)
Republican Tennessee Sen. Janice Bowling, the bill sponsor, said, “this legislation strives to extend the same protections, respect, and dignity to a deceased, surgically aborted child as granted to any other deceased human being,” according to The Associated Press.
Senate Democratic Caucus Chairwoman Raumesh Akbari disagreed with Bowling saying, “to have additional trauma related to being required to have this type of service is just cruel.” “I wish that instead of that, we would conform to what hospitals are already doing.”
Democratic Tennessee Rep. London Lamar called the bill an attempt to restrict women’s “reproductive choices.”
“Women’s reproductive choices should not be up for legislative debate, Roe v. Wade is the law of the land and let women make their own choices without further adding financial and mental and emotional burden on that it’s a hard decision,” Lamar said, according to WKRN.