Senator resurrects anti-abortion measure
NASHVILLE (AP) — A measure to amend the constitution to restrict abortion rights in Tennessee has been resurrected in the Senate, two weeks after its sponsor declared it dead for the year.
Sen. David Fowler said Thursday he is working on a compromise he hopes will satisfy lawmakers concerned about banning abortions for women with life-threatening conditions and victims of rape and incest, while assuring that the change doesn’t leave too much room for interpretation by justices.
“(The amendment) would make more clear the division of responsibilities between the Legislature and the court system,” said Fowler, R-Signal Mountain.
The Senate is expected to take up the measure Wednesday for the second time this year.
Two weeks ago, Fowler sent the resolution back to committee after his colleagues added wording that he found unpalatable. He said then that the changes proposed by Sen. Charlotte Burks, D-Monterey, might allow a father who raped his daughter to have a say in whether she could have an abortion.
In essence, Burks’ proposal said the government could not interfere if women facing life-threatening pregnancies or victims of rape and incest sought an abortion. It also banned all “partial-birth” abortions.
Fowler said Thursday there are “two or three senators who have indicated that they would really like to support the resolution.”
“They would like for us to try to find something that does not go as far as Sen. Burks’ amendment did, (but) that still addresses rape, incest and the life of the mother,” he said.
“But by probably Monday or at the latest Tuesday morning, if I don’t know there are at least two more votes then I’m not going to proceed. There’s no point in putting something back up that’s not going to pass.”
Fowler is bringing back the resolution in hopes of getting it on the 2006 ballot. To do that, his resolution must be approved by a simple majority in the House and Senate this year, then by two-thirds of the members of the next General Assembly. If Fowler has to start over next year, the earliest the amendment could be before voters is 2010.
Fowler originally proposed an amendment that said “nothing in this (Tennessee) Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or the funding thereof.”
Fowler’s resolution follows a 2000 state Supreme Court ruling that the Tennessee Constitution offers broader rights to privacy and abortion than the U.S. Constitution.
The court struck down a waiting period for women seeking abortions and other restrictions lawmakers had enacted.
Even if senators vote in favor of the resolution Wednesday, it still must be approved by the House.
House Democratic Leader Kim McMillan said the resolution as currently written is something “many people in the House could support.
“But we have to see what kind of changes Sen. Fowler comes back with before we make any further comment.”
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On the Net:
Read Senate Joint Resolution 127 at Tennessee General Assembly: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us