Tennessee Stays on National Anti-Abortion Radar ⁠8%

By Hannah Herner⁠14%

8/4/2026, 3:00:00 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 8 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Biased Writer Voice, and Negativity Bias, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 17.4% saturation with 108 hits. Analysis detected 383 faulty-reasoning hits from 622 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 18.7% and a BS Rank of ⁠8% (24,633 of 26,591 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 92.60% of the article peer group.

A Centerville, Tenn., man last week told Fox News that he was awarded a seven-figure settlement from the Department of Justice stemming from his part in a March 2021 physical blockade of a Carafem clinic in Mt. 
Juliet. 
Paul Vaughn was convicted for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a 1994 law making it a felony to use force, obstruction or inflict property damage to interfere with reproductive health care services. 
He was part of a group of mostly out-of-state activists who livestreamed the event, and introduced a patient as a “mom coming to kill her baby.” 
At the time, Carafem was performing abortions, but one year later, the facility was banned following the overturning of *Roe v. 
Wade* and enactment of Tennessee’s abortion trigger ban. 
In January 2025, while his case was on appeal, Vaughn and two other Tennesseans were among the 23 anti-abortion activists pardoned by President Donald Trump. 
Shortly after, DOJ chief of staff Chad Mizelle penned a memorandum indicating that future abortion-related FACE Act prosecutions would happen only in “extraordinary circumstances.” 
“More than a million dollars from this government to reward a man who broke federal law harassing patients, healthcare workers and volunteers,” says Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. 
“The administration is rewarding the very people who are willing to use violence to advance their agenda. 
Regardless of your views on abortion, we should all condemn this in the strongest possible terms.” 
The day after Vaughn announced his settlement news, Planned Parenthood Federation of America filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration for reducing its Title X funding. 
The Mt. 
Juliet Carafem location couldn’t issue a statement about Vaughn’s settlement, because the facility is no longer there. 
It stopped offering abortions under Tennessee’s trigger ban in August 2022 and closed in May 2023. 
Carafem now has locations only in Atlanta, Chicago and Washington, D.C., while Planned Parenthood locations in Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville pivoted to abortion navigation, as well as menopause care, vasectomies, gender-affirming care and other reproductive healthcare services. 
“These defendants knowingly chose to violate laws they disagreed with,” said Henry C. 
Leventis, former U.S. 
Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, in January 2024, when six defendants including Vaughn were convicted. 
“The jury’s verdict today is a victory for the rule of law in this country and a reminder that we cannot pick and choose which laws we follow. 
It is also a testament to the outstanding work done in this case by the trial team and our law enforcement partners.” 
Despite the state’s nearly total ban on abortion, anti-abortion activists continue to travel to Tennessee in an attempt to further chip away at reproductive freedom. 
A group identifying as abortion abolitionists from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion traveled from out of state in March to support legislation that would have allowed homicide charges — including first-degree murder — to apply in cases involving “unborn children.” 
As it was originally presented, this means fetal homicide charges could ostensibly be brought against a person for receiving an abortion. 
The legislation ultimately did not pass. 
Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi also worked with Democratic representatives to bring the Maternal Health Care Protection Act, inspired by a Tennessee woman who was denied a sterilization procedure to protect her “sacred fertility” and another who was denied care from an OB-GYN because she was unmarried. 
Such discrimination is legal under Tennessee’s Medical Ethics Defense Act, which went into effect in 2025 and allows medical professionals to deny care that goes against their “conscience.” 
In June, Tennessee became the first state to erect a “monument to the unborn” on Capitol grounds. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.8%Nashville Scene: 1.1%Confirmation Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.9%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 1.2%Nashville Scene: 2.4%Availability Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 1.4%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.6%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.7%Nashville Scene: 1.1%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 17.4%Hannah Herner: 3.7%Nashville Scene: 3.5%Framing Effect17.4%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.1%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.7%Nashville Scene: 0.4%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.0%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 1.0%Nashville Scene: 2.6%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.5%Nashville Scene: 0.5%Pessimism Bias0.0%This article: 8.2%Hannah Herner: 3.0%Nashville Scene: 3.7%Negativity Bias8.2%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.5%Nashville Scene: 0.9%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.4%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.0%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 1.1%Nashville Scene: 0.7%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 6.4%Hannah Herner: 1.5%Nashville Scene: 0.5%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias6.4%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.3%Nashville Scene: 3.7%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.3%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 4.2%Hannah Herner: 1.0%Nashville Scene: 1.2%Recency Bias4.2%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.4%Nashville Scene: 0.7%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.4%Nashville Scene: 1.0%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.0%Straw Man0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 1.8%Nashville Scene: 1.3%Appeal to Authority0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 1.1%Nashville Scene: 0.9%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 3.4%Hannah Herner: 0.3%Nashville Scene: 0.2%Slippery Slope3.4%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.1%Nashville Scene: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 2.7%Hannah Herner: 4.2%Nashville Scene: 4.0%Hasty Generalization2.7%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.5%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.2%Nashville Scene: 0.3%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 10.8%Hannah Herner: 3.4%Nashville Scene: 2.2%Appeal to Emotion10.8%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.1%Nashville Scene: 0.2%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.4%Nashville Scene: 1.7%Post Hoc (False Cause)0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.0%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.3%Nashville Scene: 0.3%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.5%Nashville Scene: 0.3%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.5%Nashville Scene: 0.3%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 1.3%Nashville Scene: 1.5%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.0%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.6%Nashville Scene: 1.0%Ambiguity (Equivocation)0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.2%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.0%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.1%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.4%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.9%Nashville Scene: 0.4%Unattributed Quote0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.2%Nashville Scene: 0.1%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 8.5%Hannah Herner: 1.7%Nashville Scene: 8.1%Biased Writer Voice8.5%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.3%Nashville Scene: 0.4%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 1.0%Nashville Scene: 0.4%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.4%Nashville Scene: 0.1%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Hannah Herner: 0.0%Nashville Scene: 0.5%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

622 words analyzed.

Speakers

2speakers24%attributed speech472writer words
Selected voice

Ashley Coffield

100%flagged-word coverage
67 attributed words45% of attributed speech35% writer coverage
0%7.5%15.0%Biased Writer Voice-11.2 ptsWriter: 11.2%Ashley Coffield: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.