A former democratic congressional candidate went viral when she posted a false claim about the morning after pill. pam keith tweeted, quote, tennessee just banned plan b and made it a crime punishable by a $50,000 fine to order it. the problem with it, it is not accurate. joining us now to explain, cnn reporter daniel dale with a fact check. daniel? you re right, tennessee has not banned plan b, plan b continues to be available to tennessee residents there is no fine for ordering plan b. the viral tweet is plain inaccurate. here are the facts. last week governor bill lee of tennessee signeded a new law that increases the penalty for sending people in tennessee abortion medication by mail or courier. makes that a felony with a fine of up to $50,000. under both previous tennessee law and this new law, doctors have to distribute abortion medication to patients in person only. but here s the thing, john, plan b is not abortion medication, it is call the morning after pill for a reason, i
Preventing pregnancy not terminating pregnancy. the language of the new tennessee law makes clear that this restriction and the fine just don t cover plan b and other emergency contraception at all. second, the fine of up to $50,000 is for people who provide abortion pills by mail, courier or delivery. again, talking abortion pills, not plan b. and critically, the law explicitly says that patients are exempt from penalties. the penalties are for the providers who break the law, not for the people who order the medication. now, miss keith s tweet was up for a few days, got more than 26,000 retweets. she deleted it after i reached her by phone yesterday afternoon and explained the law. she said she never claimed to be a doctor, to be in tennessee or to be an expert in new tennessee law. but i don t know, tweet was pretty definitive sounding and this subject is so personal that inaccurate claims can really affect people s emotions and possibly the life decisions they make. one abortion ri