Image Credit: Knox County League of Women Voters & Sen. Richard Briggs / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Olivia Lupia] –
Republican Senator Richard Briggs (Knoxville-District 7) will be a featured speaker at a “Protecting Women & Reproductive Health” event in conjunction with a retired OBGYN and a representative from Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood (TAPP).
The event is sponsored by the Knox County League of Women Voters (LWV) and is scheduled for Wednesday, March 26, from 6:30-8 PM at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (TVUUC) in Knoxville.
A web search of the guests slated to attend per the RSVP link shows some of them hold extremely liberal beliefs and advocate for left-wing causes.
For example, one attendee, Jennifer Ward, is “an expert in organizational equity and diversity initiatives in the nonprofit and health sectors,” according to her website.
Pat Bellingrath, another who RSVP’d “Yes, is the founder and leader of the “Conversations on Race” group at the Church Street United Methodist Church in Knoxville which organizes, “discussions on dismantling racism throughout Holston Conference.”
The venue, TVUUC, has been previously exposed by The Tennessee Conservative for housing a Children’s Diversity and Justice Library, a collection of publicly available “diverse and banned” books, many of which are specifically targeted towards transgender and gay ideologies. The church has also sponsored a booth at the Knox Pride Festival, so it would appear to be consistent with the TVUUC’s beliefs to host an event promoting abortion.
According to an infographic for the event, the focus for the evening will be a panel discussion on “pregnancy complications, the law, and what you can do,” implying the session will help women wishing to obtain abortions find loopholes or workarounds to Tennessee’s abortion ban, know as the Human Life Protection Act.
The Act provides that a child may only be killed through an abortion if it was deemed “necessary to prevent the death…or serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function,” of the mother.
Makaela Webb, the Grassroots Organizer for Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood, is, according to her Linkedin, a college senior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Legal & Political Philosophy with a minor in Religious Studies who also works as a Campaign Manager for local Knoxville races.
Per their website, TAPP is funded through the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and exists as the advocacy and political arm to protect Planned Parenthood of Tennessee.
Their mission is, “to encourage and protect informed individual choice regarding reproductive health care; to advocate public policies that guarantee the right to choice and full and nondiscriminatory access to reproductive health care; and to foster and preserve a social and political climate favorable to the exercise of reproductive care.”
Senator Briggs is also sponsoring pro-abortion legislation this session in the form of a bill which would create several exceptions to Tennessee’s abortion ban, including conditions of the mother which are not usually fatal to the child and usually resolve after birth, like preeclampsia or diabetes.
SB1425/HB1241 would also remove liability for committing “the offense of criminal abortion” for practitioners who murder children under Briggs’ definition of “fatal fetal anomalies”, and as the legislation gives no examples of any specific fetal conditions which meet the criteria of these anomalies, it leaves a large ambiguous loophole which could be exploited.
This bill seems to be the latest in Briggs’ long line of anti-pro-life policies and behavior. The organization Tennessee Right to Life rescinded their endorsement of the Senator in 2022 after he reversed his stance on the Human Life Protection Act and further went on to strongly oppose a bill previously carried by Briggs advocating for abortion exemptions.
Ever since its passage, Briggs has worked to undermine the Human Life Protection Act, spreading misinformation about abortion, and carrying numerous bills aimed at weakening or destroying it.
This year is no exception as he has gone on the record to say he believes the whole Act is “flawed” and that he wants to “redefine abortion.”
You can contact Senator Briggs by email or phone: sen.richard.briggs@capitol.tn.gov OR (615) 741-1766.
Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
