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Tennessee AG Demands Names Of Pregnant Women And Trans Patients' Medical Files
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is demanding that Planned Parenthood “identify under oath all pregnant women” it helped get abortion pills, and hand over the medical files of trans patients while it’s at it. He’s the same shitbag who took Tennessee’s ban on care for trans kids to the Supreme Court and won, and one landmark wasn’t enough for the scrapbook.
He also wants them to “identify your employees, officers, or agents who are responsible for the content of your website.” My dude, you’re hunting down whoever updates the FAQ page. The attorney general of an entire state wants the name of the intern with the Squarespace login.
As for the trans patients, he wants the medical files of more than a dozen people he names, plus the mental health letters diagnosing them with gender dysphoria. He also wants records on any minors Planned Parenthood gave hormones or puberty blockers to since Tennessee’s ban kicked in. Planned Parenthood says it never offered gender affirming care to minors and never did abortions by telehealth either. He’s demanding receipts for a product they never sold.
And Planned Parenthood isn’t the only target. TN Repro News reported that Skrmetti sent a similar demand to Abortion Care Tennessee, a fund whose 330 page court filing says it has never handed anyone a single pill. It shares information. In Tennessee that apparently requires a lawyer, a court date and a good therapist, assuming he doesn’t subpoena the therapist.
Skrmetti’s office says it has “the authority to request information when there may be a violation of state law,” and “we routinely do so.” Routinely. Compiling a list of pregnant women is just a Tuesday, filed somewhere between the lunch order and tracking down IT.
This same week, the Sixth Circuit smacked down Skrmetti’s appeal on Tennessee’s so called abortion trafficking law, the one that made it a crime to help a minor get a legal abortion in another state without a parent’s OK. Judge Jane Stranch wrote that the state has “no compelling interest in shielding its citizens from information about activities outside its borders.” She noted the law punishes speech encouraging an abortion while staying silent on speech encouraging a teenager to stay pregnant. So Tennessee’s free speech policy is simple. You’re free to agree with them.
The playbook writes itself. Ban the thing. Then ban talking about the thing. Then demand the names of everyone who talked about it, and everyone they talked to. Are you fecking kidding me? A state attorney general is building a list of women and trans people out of their medical files. And one of the laws he cites to do it is the Consumer Protection Act, the law meant to stop shady businesses from scamming you. Tennessee, protecting consumers from their own medical records. I’d like to see them out that on their license plates.
Sources:
https://wpln.org/post/as-tennessee-ag-seeks-abortion-records-a-nonprofit-pushes-back-in-court/
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