R&I – TxPAT ***
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is again entering the controversial abortion debate in the country.
On Friday afternoon, Lee fired back at a statement from Vice President Kamala Harris committing the Biden/Harris administration to ensuring access to health care, including reproductive health care, for all Americans.
The vice president’s statement came on the 48th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing abortion.
“Abortion isn’t healthcare,” Lee tweeted in response from his official account, followed by posts soliciting donations for the Hope Clinic For Women, a faith-based women’s clinic.
Lee’s comments quickly drew both praise and condemnation.
Tennessee Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, criticized Lee: “You’re not a doctor.”
Newly elected U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Kingsport, responded with a simple, “Amen.”
Francie Hunt, executive director of Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood, called on Lee to “turn the volume down on his rhetoric.”
“Political violence is a real danger in this country, and when the governor implies that abortion is something other than life-saving health care, it puts us all in danger,” Hunt said in a statement.
Is Gov. Lee correct in saying “abortion isn’t healthcare”?
Do you agree or disagree with Rep. Johnson’s (D-Knoxville) implication that one must be a doctor in order to express an opinion about abortion?
How would a claim that abortion isn’t health care “puts us all in danger” (as asserted by the Tennessee Director of Planned Parenthood)?
Thurston Howell III