State bills and resolutions dealing with abortion are probably headed to one big showdown in a legislative subcommittee in late March.
Two abortion resolutions had been scheduled to be heard in a House subcommittee this afternoon but chairman Joey Hensley says he wants to deal with all abortion proposals at once.
The Hohenwald Republican says his Public Health Subcommittee will probably focus on passing Senate Joint Resolution 127. That’s a constitutional amendment that would say the state provides no protections for abortion. It’s been proposed eight years in a row and has always died in the obscure subcommittee now chaired by Hensley.
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Doctor/Representative Hensley says he expects still more bills on the subject of abortion to be filed before final bill filing deadline this Thursday.
Most of the focus will be on SJR 127, which calls for a constitutional amendment whereby the state constitution would be stripped of support for abortion.
“I really feel like we probably need to deal with it, SJR 127, after it passes the Senate, certainly, but it has to pass over there before we can actually deal with it here. So that’s another reason for us to postpone hearing some of these until that’s passed and we can deal with it at the same time as the others.”
Hedy Weinberg, director of the local ACLU, which has taken the pro-Choice position, says there are several similar bills in the works.
“There are a number of constitutional amendment resolutions pending, which would in fact insert language into the state Constitution saying there is no right to abortion in this state. Now that language, or that, those resolutions, have been introduced, ever since 2000 when the Tennessee Supreme Court issued a momentous decision which actually found that there is a right to privacy as it pertains to women seeking abortion.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood brought that lawsuit and have fought SJR 127 each year since then.
Weinberg says pro-Life forces have misrepresented the degree of regulation of abortion that already exists in the state.
“The anti-choice legislators and activists have come forth and said that there are no laws guiding abortion in this state. And that is just not true.There is a strong parental consent statute. There is clear, required informed consent, for all physicians, for all health care providers, in this state, that’s guided actually by the malpractice insurance requirement that doctors have to, and health care providers, have to adhere to.”
Here’s a link to a pro-Life site that has argued consistently for more abortion regulation. See their “right to life” section.
Here’s a link to the ACLU site that argues the pro-Choice position. See “reproductive freedom.”
Here’s a link to the legislative bills dealing with abortion.
Senate Joint Resolution 127 hasn’t been filed yet (Feb. 24) but for four sessions has had the same wording. Here’s a link to the version from 2007.
Senate Joint Resolution 127 hasn’t been filed yet (Feb. 24) but for four sessions has had the same wording. Here is the version from 2007:
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