Two Tennessee Republican lawmakers are supporting a measure that would enable physicians to perform abortions involving “fatal fetal anomalies,” setting up a potential clash with those who oppose changes in the state’s abortion ban.

Sen. Richard Briggs of Knoxville and Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes are sponsoring House Bill 1241, which specifies that physicians don’t commit “criminal abortion” by performing the procedure to deal with a “lethal fetal anomaly” or premature delivery of an unborn child with a deadly condition.

The measure is supported by the Tennessee Medical Association following an October 2024 ruling in Blackmon v. State of Tennessee in which a three-judge panel found that physicians may terminate pregnancies to save a woman’s life when she’s critically ill. The court also outlined fatal fetal diagnoses that could qualify under their ruling.

Tennessee’s abortion ban allows the procedure only when the mother’s life is in danger.

The medical association expects Tennessee Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, to oppose the bill. But the group’s attorney and lobbyist Will Brewer declined to comment until the bill is ready to go to a committee.

Helton-Haynes, who tried to add an exception to the abortion ban two years ago, said the bill is necessary because of the life-threatening conditions many women face during pregnancy.

“It would just make it an exception like the life of the mother. Fatal fetal anomaly is something that’s not compatible with life outside the womb,” Helton-Haynes said.

Briggs, a retired Army physician, said changes are needed to the abortion ban in part because the three-judge panel saw four errors in the law that need to be cured. He added that Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said the law is indefensible.

The state’s Human Life Protection Act is so “flawed,” Briggs said, that other aspects could be challenged in court and the entire law struck down.

“I want to redefine abortion and redefine medically necessary termination of pregnancies,” Briggs said, adding he wants to separate “culture and social wars” from medical care to save lives and women’s fertility.

The Tennessee Medical Association wants to ensure that criminal charges can’t be filed against physicians who perform procedures to save a woman going through a dangerous pregnancy.

The state’s abortion ban has forced many women to go to states that allow pregnancies to be ended if they involve a “fetal fatal anomaly.”

“We are not in any way trying to increase the number of medical abortions,” said Julie Griffin, a lobbyist for the Tennessee Medical Association.

But without modifications, Griffin said, the state’s abortion ban law could be in “jeopardy” as it moves through the court system.

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee declined to comment on the bill.