An abortion ban turned a grieving Allie Phillips into a candidate

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
January 25, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST


Allie Phillips, a first-time candidate aiming to change Tennessee’s abortion ban, traveled to the Capitol for the opening of this year’s legislative session. (Stacy Kranitz)

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CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Framed ultrasounds hang next to Allie Philips’s mantle, a shrine to the child she never had: delicate silver necklaces and receiving blankets embroidered with the name Miley Rose, beside a tiny pink urn containing fetal ashes. ... It’s here, by the fireplace, where Phillips runs her in-home day care, greets her mechanic husband at the end of his workday and watches their daughter play with the family’s pit bull rescue. It’s also here where she’s coordinating her campaign for state legislature, motivated by the trauma of seeking an abortion while pregnant with Miley Rose.

Phillips had been overjoyed by the prospect of another little girl. Then, at about 19 weeks, a routine ultrasound revealed devastating problems: Amniotic fluid supporting the fetus had drained; its lungs, heart, brain and other organs were not developing.

Continuing the pregnancy would endanger Phillips, her doctor warned. But Tennessee’s near-total ban on abortion — signed into law some six months earlier — meant she would have to go out of state for the procedure. She temporarily closed her day care, left 5-year-old Adalie with her parents and flew to New York City with her husband. A stranger hosted them. GoFundMe donations covered their travel and medical costs.

Her loss not only turned the petite 28-year-old into a first-time candidate — challenging an antiabortion conservative in a fast-growing district on the Kentucky border — but into a committed activist, too. She is one of three dozen plaintiffs in state and federal lawsuits filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights against abortion bans in Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma and Idaho, among the most restrictive statutes in the country. ... “We are in a fight for our lives,” Phillips told a rally outside the Tennessee Capitol on the first day of this year’s legislative session. “We cannot back down and hide away.”

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Phillips walks to the Tennessee Capitol to watch lawmakers open their 2024 session. (Stacy Kranitz)

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By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Molly Hennessy-Fiske joined The Post in 2022 as a national reporter based in Texas covering breaking news and red states. Twitter https://twitter.com/mollyhf