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Alert   
Urgent TN Senate Life of Mother Legislation: Senate Bill 745
Memphis Dermatologist

George Woodbury MD 2/22/2023

Dr. Woodbury in clinic smiling 2021 DSC_0198 cropped.jpg

Dear friends, colleagues, medical students, patients,

 

  It is quite difficult for practicing Medical Doctors like myself to prescribe oral and injectable medications for severe skin conditions when it’s possible that the patient may become pregnant and might lose the pregnancy, which would thereby put me under a Class C Felony which would likely end my own medical career. As a result, I have been unable to properly treat women of childbearing potential with medications that could alleviate severe itching and pain, due to the language within the Trigger Bill that signed into law by Governor Bill Lee in August of 2022.

 

  Senator Brent Taylor (R-Germantown, Collierville: 1-615-741-3036) and Senator Paul Rose (R-Lakeland, Arlington: 1-615-741-1967) will be voting on Senate Bill 745 (the TN Medical Association-supported Life of Mother Exemption to the Trigger Bill) on Monday 02/27/2023, in the TN Senate Judiciary Committee. This is the amendment to the Trigger Bill that would clarify that commonly performed medically necessary procedures - like Methotrexate treatment for psoriasis and lupus - are not criminal abortions - and would not subject the prescribing physician to Class C Felony charges. My opinion is that it is very important for Senator Brent Taylor and Senator Paul Rose to vote YES on this bill Tuesday afternoon 02/28/2023.

 

  As well, Senator Kerry Roberts (Springfield TN: near Clarksdale TN: 1-615-741-4499) and Senator Dawn White (Murfreesboro TN: near Nashville: 1-615-741-6853) serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and they would greatly benefit from input on this legislation from people within their districts.

 

  We really all four of these Tennessee Senators to vote YES on SB745, in order to see that this bill passes out of committee to the full TN Senate. At the moment, these four senators are on the fence about this amendment which is so badly needed by the medical community.

 

Background on the Life of Mother Exemption to the Trigger Bill – 02/22/2023:

 

I had a long conversation on Tuesday 02/21/2023 with Senator Taylor, but he indicated that he really needs to hear from people living within Germantown and Collierville.

 

Thanks for any support you can muster from these geographic areas of TN. I personally believe that phone calls are much more helpful than Emails.

 

If you or your contacts don’t reach them directly, urge their secretaries on the dire importance of the senators to vote YES on SB745 on Monday 02/27/2023 in Senate Judiciary (else leave a voice message). 

Feel free to share this message. 

 

Many thanks for your help.

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George Woodbury Jr MD

Memphis Medical Society Legislative Committee Co-chair

and Dermatologist in Cordova, TN

1-901-265-1189

02/22/2023

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