By J. Holly McCall | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning, Lookout readers.
Isn’t it ironic, sang rocker Alanis Morrissette in a song on her 1995 hit album, “Jagged Little Pill.”
Such was Wednesday, which was the 4th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that struck down the federal right to have an abortion.
On the sunny grounds of the Tennessee Capitol, a couple of hundred people, including a passel of Republican lawmakers, gathered for the dedication of the “Monument to the Unborn,” an engraved marker honoring aborted fetuses and others deemed harmed by abortion.
Legislation to create the monument began rolling in 2018 and Tennessee’s monument is the first in the nation, with Texas and Arkansas soon following. State Rep. Bill Dunn, a Knoxville Republican, noted in his remarks the event was specifically scheduled for the Dobbs anniversary.
Meanwhile, a few blocks away in Davidson County Chancery Court, three doctors filed suit against the Tennessee Department of Health over the department’s notice to immigrant families of critically ill children that in order to continuing receiving care for their kids through a last resort public health program, the department plans to turn all personal information over to Tennessee Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division.
Several parents have noted they are faced with a moral dilemma: don’t comply, and their children no longer get potentially life-sustaining care, or comply and potentially get deported, also leaving their kids without medical care.
Isn’t it ironic.
THE LOOKOUT’S TOP STORY
Three doctors have filed suit against the Tennessee Department of Health over its decision to report medically fragile children without legal immigration status in a public health program to a state immigration agency. Local public health departments like the Metro Nashville Public Health Department, pictured here, administer the Children’s Special Services program . (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
by Anita Wadhwani
A Nashville judge on Wednesday swiftly issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Tennessee Department of Health from turning over the names of about 400 disabled and critically ill kids to a state immigration agency that cooperates with federal immigration enforcement.
NEWS AND NOTES
Lunch with ‘mad as a murder hornet’ Trump and US Senate GOP fails to heal divisions | Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa and Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom
Trump spikes housing bill at last minute, refusing to sign until SAVE America Act passes | Jacob Fischler and Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom
States that won’t obey Trump order will have their mail ballots halted, postmaster says | Jonathan Shorman, States Newsroom
FEATURED IN THE LOOKOUT
State lawmakers are nearly doubling the amount of money they will pay to a company that administrates the state’s private school voucher program. Gov. Bill Lee, pictured here signing the voucher measure into law in 2025, has made school vouchers a keystone of his tenure. (Photo: John Partipilo/ Tennessee Lookout)
by Sam Stockard
Tennessee lawmakers are giving a $356 million raise to Student First Technologies, LLC, the company handling the state’s two private-school voucher programs, despite the vendor’s struggles to manage similar programs in two other states.
FEATURED IN THE LOOKOUT
Erika Christensen, left, with her husband, Garin, and her daughter in New York in 2018. Christensen and her husband founded Patient Forward, a nonprofit organization that advocates for later abortion access, after she had to fly to Colorado from New York to terminate a pregnancy with severe complications in 2016. (Photo courtesy of Erika Christensen)
by Kelcie Moseley-Morris
In the four years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a split has emerged among abortion-rights advocates: whether to return to the way laws were made after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, which allowed abortion access to be limited after fetal viability, or whether to push for more.
COMMENTARY
The Tennessee General Assembly could take a couple of practical measures towards better governance in the state, including an effort aimed at dialing back the influence of Citizens United. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
by Mark Harmon
Tennessee lawmakers could focus on passing productive legislation, including a couple of measures, one which is inspired by two other states that have instituted workarounds to Citizens United, the landmark 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said restricting corporate spending in campaigns violates the First Amendment.
ICYMI
Federal judge voids SNAP restrictions on sugary foods in Tennessee, other states | Cassandra Stephenson
Shelby Co. Health Department questions integrity of community air monitoring report data | Cassandra Stephenson
COMMENTARY
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