Posted on 03/09/2006 1:29:30 PM PST by Gopher Broke
Tenn. Senate Moves to Limit Abortions
The state Senate on Thursday passed a proposal to amend the Tennessee Constitution so that it doesn't guarantee a woman's right to an abortion.
The 24-9 vote was the first step of many toward officially amending the state constitution. The measure would go before voters if the General Assembly approves it twice over the next two years.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that the Tennessee Constitution grants women a greater right to abortion than the U.S. Constitution.
Abortion rights supporters are attacking the measure as a stepping stone to prohibiting all abortions in Tennessee if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark abortion decision in Roe v. Wade.
"The resolution is an all-out attack on the women of Tennessee and seeks to rob women of their right to make choices about their own health, safety and personal welfare," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. Sen. David Fowler, a Republican sponsor of the bill, proposed a similar resolution last year that cleared the Senate but stalled in a House committee.
"I regret this will cast me as being hardhearted, unsympathetic and unkind but that's not who I am," Fowler said.
Tennessee has a long process for amending its constitution, requiring approval by both chambers in session of the General Assembly, two-thirds approval by both chambers in the next session, and then approval by voters.
Several states are considering restrictions on abortion that eventually could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. South Dakota's governor signed a law Monday that would prohibit all abortions except those necessary to save a mother's life.
Some opponents of abortion rights hope the additions of Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito will make the court more likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, although a majority of the court still appears to support the 1973 ruling.
GO TN! These bill are cropping up all over the country!
In this day and age, it seems like they have the healthy option of not having unprotected sex, or of using contraception to prevent a pregnancy in the first place. It's almost as if they want the freedom to jump head-first off a tall building and have the right to not get hurt when the land.
What's interesting about this move, in light of the other states that have started down this path is the degree to which there was a pent up damand for these limits, all suppressed by the threat of a court veto.
I think these efforts, while laudible, may be premature, and may prove a setback if one of them is reversed by the Courts. Hopefully any challange will be delayed till yet another new Justice is appointed.
I'm not sure there is a strong enough majority on the SC yet.
You're right. Watch for the violence against legislation of this type to break out any day.
"Don't ever get between a liberal and her birth control," Rush Limbaugh.
"I regret this will cast me as being hardhearted, unsympathetic and unkind but that's not who I am," Fowler said.
Unsympathetic and unkind because he wants to guarantee LIFE, liberty, happiness to the unborn US citizens?!?!?!?
I say the abortionists and NAGS are the unsympathetic and unkind!
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - guaranteed by the US Constitution. And first of these is LIFE!
I believe that's the Declaration of Independence.
Sorry, I've heard "Scalito" so many times I sometimes mistype.
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