‘There Are Weeks When I Commit Multiple Felonies’: A Doctor’s Life After Roe

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When Roe fell last year, Tennessee became the state with the strictest abortion ban in the country — no abortions, no exceptions. Any doctor who performed one was knowingly committing a class C felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. That is a risk Dr. Elise Boos, an obstetrician specializing in high-risk pregnancies, has been willing to take for patients who need lifesaving care.

But Dr. Boos has also been working with anti-abortion lawmakers to write new legislation that would provide clearer language for doctors and allow for limited exceptions to the ban. In doing so, she has faced a dilemma: Should lifesaving care for some be prioritized over reproductive choice for all?

Editor’s Note: This episode was recorded before a recent vote in the Tennessee House of Representatives on a bill spelling out limited exceptions to the total abortion ban. You can read about those developments here.

(A full transcript of the episode will be available midday on the Times website.)

More on abortion legislation from Times Opinion and other publications:

• Times Opinion: All-or-Nothing Abortion Politics Will Leave Women With Nothing

• ProPublica: Tennessee Lobbyists Oppose New Lifesaving Exceptions in Abortion Ban

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Follow Lulu Garcia-Navarro on Twitter: @lourdesgnavarro

“First Person” was produced this week by Olivia Natt and Rhiannon Corby. It was edited by Stephanie Joyce and Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Efim Shapiro. Original music by Isaac Jones, Sonia Herrero, Pat McCusker and Carole Sabouraud. Fact-checking by Will Peischel. The rest of the “First Person” team includes Anabel Bacon, Wyatt Orme, Sophia Alvarez Boyd, Derek Arthur and Jillian Weinberger. Special thanks to Kristina Samulewski, Shannon Busta, Allison Benedikt, Annie-Rose Strasser and Katie Kingsbury.