Senior United States District Judge Bernard A. Friedman has permanently enjoined enforcement of Tennessee's 48-hour abortion waiting period.
Judge Friedman in his ruling said, "The mandatory waiting period is...gratuitously demeaning to women who have decided to have an abortion...provides no appreciable benefit to fetal life or women's mental and emotional health. On the contrary.....place women's physical and psychological health and well-being at risk."
He also said, “Defendants’ suggestion that women are overly emotional and must be required to cool off or calm down before having a medical procedure they have decided they want to have, and that they are constitutionally entitled to have, is highly insulting and paternalistic – and all the more so given that no such waiting periods apply to men.”
He added, “It is apparent that this waiting period unduly burdens women’s right to an abortion and is an affront to their ‘dignity and autonomy,’ ‘personhood’ and ‘destiny,’ and ‘conception of . . . (their) place in society.’”
About half of the states in the U.S. have similar forced waiting periods.
The case was brought by reproductive health care providers in the state, represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison, LLC, and Jessee & Jessee.