“I decided to meet with my district representative in the state legislature,” said Allie Phillips. Her idea was a bill she’d called “Miley’s Law”—named after the child she’d lost—which would create an exception in Tennessee’s abortion ban allowing for the termination of pregnancies when the fetus has a fatal diagnosis.
She said the meeting with her lawmaker—Republican Rep. Jeff Burkhart—was disturbing. “I quickly learned that these [Republican] lawmakers don’t know anything about reproductive care. He was confused because I had had a healthy first pregnancy, and then lost my second one. He told me, ‘I thought only first pregnancies could go bad.’”
Burkhart, a 63-year-old father, told Allie he’d set up a meeting for her with the state’s attorney general—but never followed through.
“After that, my mom said, ‘Maybe you should run against him,’” Allie said. “And then my TikTok followers started to say the same thing.”