NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Center for Reproductive Rights filed lawsuits in three states Tuesday, including Tennessee, on behalf of multiple women who said they were denied abortions despite “dangerous pregnancy complications.”

The three women in Tennessee claim doctors refused to perform abortions out of fear of punishment under Tennessee’s abortion ban, which was enacted on Aug. 25, 2022, about two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Tennessee’s ban has exemptions for medical emergencies, but the lawsuit argues it’s so vague that some doctors are afraid to perform abortions.

“It’s meaningless to doctors,” said the women’s attorney, Linda Goldstein. “So, doctors are still afraid of providing care to their patients.”

One of the plaintiffs, Clarksville mother Allison Phillips, said she was 19 weeks pregnant with her second daughter, who she had already named Miley Rose, when she was told she had no chance at life.

“I was hysterical,” Phillips said. “All I could do was ask, ‘What do we do now?’ The doctor said that there were two options – either ending the pregnancy with an abortion or continuing, realizing that Miley wasn’t going to survive.”

Phillips went to New York for an abortion and learned there her health was in more danger than she’d thought.

“When I learned that Miley’s heart had already stopped beating, the doctor told me that my body hadn’t recognized that she died, and that now I was at a risk of severe blood clots and infection, including sepsis. So what was originally planned as a two day procedure became more urgent,” she said.

Another woman named in the complaint said the abortion ban resulted in “grave risks” to her own health, and she reportedly ended up giving birth to a stillborn baby.

The other two plaintiffs on the lawsuit are Tennessee OBGYNs suing the state on behalf of themselves and their patients.

The plaintiffs and their lawyer are asking a judge to clarify what qualifies as a medical emergency, and argue that without clarification, pregnant women have to either flee the state for an abortion or wait until they’re “on the brink of death” to get the care they need.

Additional legal actions were filed in Idaho and Oklahoma, where abortion was also banned following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. These filings come a few months after 13 women sued the state of Texas for being denied abortion care despite facing similar complications.

A judge in that case recently ruled that all of the women should have been given abortions and clarified the scope of the exceptions to Texas’ abortion bans, although the ruling has been appealed by the state and is now on hold.

When asked for a reaction to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Attorney General said, “The plaintiffs have not yet served us with the complaint. We will review it when it arrives.”