Tennessee Moves to Limit Abortion Rights
Constitutional Amendment Process Passes State House and Senate
The state House of Representatives May 18 voted by a margin of 76-22 for SJR 127, an anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution. Proponents defeated a Democratic attempt to make exceptions for rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. The state Senate previously passed the measure by a 24-8 margin.
Abortion Would Still Be Legal
The measure still has a long way to go before voters would decide on final passage or rejection.
First, SJR 127 would have to pass both chambers by a two-thirds majority in either 2011 or 2012 to move forward. This session, it passed both the House and the Senate by that required supermajority. It would then go on the ballot in 2014, and it would take a majority of voters to strip abortion rights out of the state constitution. Even then, because of the precedence of U.S. Supreme Court ruling, abortion would still be legal in Tennessee under Roe v. Wade.
Amending the Tennessee constitution would nullify a 2000 Tennessee Supreme Court decision, Planned Parenthood v. Sundquist, which found that the state constitution affords stronger protection for abortion rights than does the U.S. Constitution and launched the current effort to amend the state’s constitution.
The state Republican Party said May 18 that the measure “seeks to restore commonsense regulations on abortion to Tennessee state law that were erased by the liberal state Supreme Court.”
The amendment would make it explicit that the state Constitution does not recognize a “right to abortion.” Subsequent legislative action would be required to make such provisions as parental notification, informed consent and a 48-hour waiting period state law.
Republicans had been unable to gain traction for the amendment process until this year when they took control of both chambers of the state legislature after the 2008 general election.
No Exception for Rape or Incest
The House rejected a proposed amendment that would have made an exception for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
"I have three daughters and I'm concerned that if one of those young ladies got in this situation of being brutally raped by some gangster or some hoodlum, they should have choices," Rep. Mike Turner, D-Nashville, argued during the debate, although he eventually voted for the measure.
"This simply restores neutrality,” said Rep. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown. “It's not the court's job to put rights into the constitution. It's the people's job to put rights into the constitution, and that's what we're doing this evening."
Although Tennessee is still a long way from passage of a constitutional amendment and despite the fact that Roe v. Wade still governs abortion rights in all states, conservative groups were quick to applaud passage of the measure.
“The results were beyond surprising,” said David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee. “Some might even say that death was swallowed up in victory.”
Anti-Abortion Amendment Moves Forward
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