On April 24, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the Medical Ethics Defense Act, SB 955 (full text). The new law provides in part:

A healthcare provider must not be required to participate in or pay for a healthcare procedure, treatment, or service that violates the conscience of the healthcare provider....

[However, this] Does not permit a healthcare payer to decline payment for a healthcare procedure, treatment, or service it is contractually obligated to pay for under the terms of a contract with an insured party. 

 Any political subdivision ... shall not reprimand or sanction a healthcare provider, nor deny or revoke, or threaten to deny or revoke, a license, certification, or registration of a healthcare provider for engaging in speech, expression, or association that is protected from government interference by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, unless the political subdivision demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence that the healthcare provider's speech, expression, or association was the direct cause of physical harm to a person with whom the healthcare provider had a practitioner-patient relationship within the three (3) years immediately preceding the incident of physical harm.

WBIR News reports on the new law.