Senators hear testimony on anti-abortion amendment
NASHVILLE (AP) — A push in the Legislature to amend the Tennessee Constitution by limiting abortion rights is an “attack on the most precious document in our state,” an opponent of the change told a Senate committee Tuesday.
Mary Frances Lyle, a lobbyist for the Tennessee Women’s Political Caucus, made the comments as members of the Senate Finance Committee began consideration of a resolution that says, “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects the right to abortion or the funding thereof.”
The amendment proposal, sponsored by Sen. David Fowler, R-Signal Mountain, specifies that the Tennessee Constitution includes no abortion protections beyond those in the U.S. Constitution as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court. If approved by two separate sessions of the General Assembly, the measure would go on the ballot as soon as 2006, officials said.
The resolution was first introduced after a 2000 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling found that the state Constitution gives a woman abortion rights broader than those spelled out in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade. Consideration of the measure was put off last year by the Senate.
The state justices ruled that the right to terminate a pregnancy was a vital part of the right to privacy guaranteed by the Tennessee Constitution. They struck down several restrictions enacted by lawmakers, including a two-day waiting period and mandatory counseling for women seeking abortions.
Fowler called his resolution “real simple and straightforward,” in that it would just return the state to the language it was governed by before the Supreme Court decision.
“All we’re simply saying is matters governing abortion and its availability are not determined by the state Constitution, but would — subject to the United States Constitution — be determined by the Legislature,” he said.
Fowler said one worry opponents of the Supreme Court decision have is that the state may eventually be required to pay for abortions for people who could not afford them on their own.
“Obviously we could pay for any abortions we wanted to pay for and we would pay for all abortions required by federal law,” Fowler said. “But it would not be a constitutional mandate to have to pay for them.”
Lyle, called to testify by committee member Sen. Ward Crutchfield, D-Chattanooga, argued that “when you target a minority group to amend the Constitution, to reduce the rights of that group, you’re setting a very dangerous precedent.”
“It’s unheard of, and it’s scary,” she said.
A committee vote on the resolution was put off until next week, and the measure must still must go through the House committee process, where it previously stalled in 2002.
Successful passage of the resolution would be the latest in a string of successes by anti-abortion forces in the state.
Last year, the Legislature passed a bill that created “Choose Life” specialty license plates like those offered in six other states and inserted into an administration bill language that limits the use of taxpayer money for abortions.
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On the Net:
Tennessee General Assembly, www.legislature.state.tn.us
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