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Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday March 27th, 2024 and this is a special episode of

the excerpt. Bristol is a small Appalachian city that's become a microcosm of the national abortion debate. That's because Bristol has a state line

running through it, Virginia to the north where abortion is legal, Tennessee to the

south where it was outlawed after Rovi Wade was overturned.

Our guest today, USA Today Health reporter,

Adriana Rodriguez, visited the city

after the ban in Tennessee

went into effect to document the impact on its residents.

Thanks for being on the excerpt Adriana.

Thank you for having me.

So can you please start us out by describing Bristol?

What kind of city is it?

And how did it change after abortion was banned in Tennessee?

Yes, so Bristol is a town, it's a small town,

quaint town, and sort of the Appalachian Mountains.

It has a very rich history. It is the birthplace of country music.

People like to go there and visit to hike and to see the beautiful scenery. They like to visit downtown. They like to go on to State Street that marks the divide between the two states and sort of hop across the street to be in two different states, right? People like to go there to retire because it's more of like a

a slower pace of life. And so before Roe fell I feel like Bristol was Virginia and Tennessee's best kept secret, but that changed in

2022 because what happened was after Dobbs decision and Roe fell Tennessee had decided to ban abortion and so

that wanted to effect shortly after Roe fell and you know having different laws

...