It does include a legal mechanism called the “affirmative defense” that can be used in life-threatening emergencies. The defense is written in such a way that it means doctors who provide an abortion must “prove by a preponderance of evidence” that the procedure was necessary to save the pregnant patient’s life or prevent “irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” No state agencies have released standards to help clarify what counts. The boundaries of enforcement would be left up to prosecutors and the courts.
. . . “Here, the defendant is guilty until he can prove that he’s not guilty,” he said. “In my opinion, that is a very bad position to put the doctors in — why should this doctor have to pay his own legal bills for saving a woman’s life?”
Read the whole thing: “We Need to Defend This Law”: Inside an Anti-Abortion Meeting With Tennessee’s GOP Lawmakers (ProPublica)