Tennessee’s Governor Elects Not To Veto Abortion Coverage Ban

As the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports today, Governor Phil Bredesen decided not to veto a Tennessee bill that “bar(s) coverage of abortion in any health plan offered through a state-run health insurance exchange to be created under health reform.”

In a letter issued yesterday, the Governor wrote:

“While I am concerned about potential unintended consequences of this legislation, I have allowed it to become law because the health care exchanges that would be impacted by this legislation will not become operational until 2014, giving the General Assembly time to rethink this issue and address the concerns created by this bill.”

In other words, Tennessee will elect a new Governor this fall, and he doesn’t like it, but he’s going to leave it for someone else to deal with.

I doubt very many people around Tennessee’s capitol of Nashville will even notice this – we’re rightfully focused on the aftermath of last weekend’s flood. I wouldn’t have known, except I found out through Twitter, via Jessica Valenti, via NARAL, who linked to the Chattanooga paper. I’m honestly surprised (perhaps naively) that anything else is even happening right now in the Governor’s office that is not recovery-focused.

Um, yeah.

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