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Finally-------after 15 years
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It took 14 years of work to get it to the people, but after the people of Tennessee voted in November 2014 to amend the TN Constitution to overturn the 2000 State Supreme Court decision, the members of the the 2015 Legislative Session did their part in passing legislation that put into law those provisions that will assure a thoughtful decision and a licensed environment. Check out the overwhelming votes in the side bar. Tennessee is truly a pro-life state and will not longer be an 'abortion destination' place for out of state people. We have much to be grateful for and to celebrate. To everyone who worked all these years to get to this place of VICTORY, a huge THANK YOU! |
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48-hour abortion waiting period signed into Tennessee law
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Anita Wadhwani, awadhwani@tennessean.com 5:24 p.m. CDT May 18, 2015
Women seeking an abortion in Tennessee will now have to make two trips to a clinic, waiting 48 hours after getting in-person counseling from a doctor before being able to return for the procedure, under a new measure signed into law by Gov. Bill Haslam on Monday.
Physicians who do not follow new rules on what to tell their patients during the in-person counseling could face either misdemeanor or felony charges, or risk having their medical licenses revoked.
Tennessee is now one of 28 states to require some form of abortion waiting period, although more may soon be added to the list as legislatures in other states weigh similar measures.
The law's passage marks the second major abortion policy shift in Tennessee this month. Last week the governor signed into law a requirement that all clinics performing more than 50 surgical abortions each year must be regulated as outpatient surgery centers - a law that has forced clinic closures in other states. The measure could jeopardize the operations of two of Tennessee's seven abortion providers that are not already regulated under those Department of Health rules. Four clinics are currently regulated, while a fifth provides only medication abortions - commonly known as the abortion pill - and is not required to meet the new guidelines.
The new laws follow voter approval of Amendment 1 in November, which removed the right to an abortion from the Tennessee Constitution.
The measures represent a major victory for abortion opponents, led by Tennessee Right to Life, which worked for more than 14 years for the passage of the constitutional amendment and aided lawmakers in crafting the language of the new laws. The two measures easily sailed through the Republican-dominated legislature.
"Women and girls considering abortion in our state deserve relevant details and adequate time to make fully informed decisions about the fate of their unborn child," said Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life. "We are grateful to the voters who approved Amendment 1 and to the public officials who have fulfilled their commitment to restore common-sense protections for women, girls and unborn children in our state."
Backers said the new rules are designed to protect the health and welfare of women. During heated debates, some lawmakers said the laws also were designed to protect unborn children and give women more time to consider abortion alternatives.
For abortion rights advocates - who marched in protest around the Capitol, showed up in pink T-shirts to committee hearings and walked through the hallways of the legislature dressed in 1950s clothing to draw attention to the lives of women in an era before abortion was legal - the laws represent an alarming encroachment on a woman's right to an abortion.
Women may travel 100 miles or more to reach one of Tennessee's seven abortion clinics. Requiring them to make that trip twice will require time off work, child care and travel expenses that place an especially heavy burden on low-income working mothers, according to advocates who also argued that no other medical procedure has a mandatory waiting period in the state. Nationally, nearly two thirds of women seeking abortion already have at least one child at home.
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Gov. Bill Haslam signs new abortion law
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Anita Wadhwani, awadhwani@tennessean.com 4:36 p.m. CDT May 8, 2015
All clinics in Tennessee performing more than 50 surgical abortions per year will now be regulated as ambulatory surgery treatment centers, according to a new measure signed into law Friday by Gov. Bill Haslam.
Four of the state's surgical abortion clinics are already regulated as ambulatory surgery treatment centers, or ASTCs, but the measure could affect operations of clinics in Nashville and Bristol that are not.
The governor has not yet signed another set of abortion restrictions approved by lawmakers this year that would require women seeking an abortion to undergo a 48-hour waiting period and scripted in-person counseling by a physician before obtaining the procedure.
Tennessee's new rules, which take effect July 1, come as state legislatures across the country - but particularly in the South and the middle part of the country, including states such as Kansas, Oklahoma and Indiana - are enacting an increasing number of abortion restrictions, a trend that began to gain steam after the 2010 elections. Thirty states have adopted more than 230 abortion regulations since then.
This year, through the end of April, there have been 381 abortion restrictions introduced across the country, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion legislation.
Tennessee lawmakers have in recent years also enacted a handful of abortion restrictions, including a requirement that physicians performing abortions have admitting privileges at local hospitals, which forced the closure in 2012 of a clinic in Knoxville that could not find a physician willing to provide abortions who also had admitting privileges.
But until voters approved Amendment 1 in November removing the right to an abortion from the state constitution, Tennessee lawmakers were limited in their ability to pass legislation by a 2000 state Supreme Court decision that concluded the state constitution provided stronger protections for abortion than the U.S. Constitution.
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YES on 1 VICTORY
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Because of the remarkable work of grassroots activists all across the state, the work of Tennessee Right to Life, Family Action Council, Tennessee Eagle Forum, countless churches, donors, volunteers, on November 4, God gave the VICTORY!!
The 2000 State Supreme Court decision was OVERTURNED by the people of Tennessee. Now we can go back and put into place common sense, health protecting laws like those the Court overturned. THANK YOU to all those who played even the smallest role in this effort where we were outspent 3 or 4 to 1; where abortion supporters arranged for phone banking from other states into TN against us; where EVERY word in the opposing TV ads was at best, misleading, at worst, pure lies.
Praise the Lord for His Grace and Mercy on our state. Ultimately this is a VICTORY for Moms and babies!! |
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A Pro-Life State Constitution
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Then came the battle to get SJR 127 through the General Assembly:
A 2000 decision by the Tennessee Supreme Court wrongly ruled in 'Planned Parenthood of Middle Tennessee v. Sundquist' that the Tennessee Constitution contains a fundamental right to abortion even broader than that affirmed by 'Roe v. Wade' at the federal level. As a result, common sense state laws passed by the Tennessee Legislature were immediately stripped away including informed consent for women considering abortion, a 48 hour waiting period, and hospitalization for second and third trimester abortions.
Subsequently, laws requiring the regulation of abortion facilities have also been found to violate the new "state right to abortion" discovered by judges in the Tennessee Constitution. ('Adams & Boyle v. TN Dept of Health'.)
Since that time Tennessee Eagle Forum has joined forces with Tennessee Right to Life and Family Action of Tennessee to pass an amendment that would give the people the opportunity to vote to return the State Constitution to the neutral position it was in for 130 years.
The actual text of the proposed amendment, SJR 127:
"Nothing in Constitution of Tennessee secures or protects right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion; states that the people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother."
This amendment would allow for Tennesseans and our elected officials to once again determine abortion policy in our state |
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BACKGROUND from 2000: Roving Constitutional Convention
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BY CYNTHIA M. KEDROWSKI
Guest Columnist
Perspective: Times & Free Press Opinion
November 8, 2000
What is the point of having a written Constitution if the courts can amend it to suit their personal preferences and pleasure? That's a question many Tennesseans are asking following a recent decision by the Tennessee Supreme Court, which ruled that our state constitution provides a broader "right to abortion" than Roe vs. Wade.
Such a decision is troubling on a number of fronts.
Perhaps the most obvious cause for concern is the great length the court traveled in order to construct such a right into our founding document. As dissenting Justice Mickey Barker wrote, "this Court has consciously decided to ignore two centuries of settled constitutional interpretation concerning the proper Scope of our Constitution..."
Secondly, in issuing its decision in Planned Parenthood of Middle Tennessee vs. Sundquist, the Court has removed from the People of Tennessee and the state Legislature the ability to civilly and rationally debate the most controversial question of our time. Again quoting Justice Barker's dissent, "Rather than leaving policy decisions regarding reasonable abortion regulation to the General Assembly, this Court has converted itself into a roving constitutional convention..."
But taken to its most basic and personal level, the Court has badly failed those whose cause it claimed to champion: the thousands of women in Tennessee who face lonely and difficult decisions regarding their lives and those of their unborn children. What were these challenged protections that Planned Parenthood and the Court found so objectionable?
Informed consent for women: This provision ensured that abortion clinics disclose the inherent risks of the abortion procedure consistent with the woman's own medical diagnosis and history. It insisted that a woman is given accurate information on the estimated gestational age of her unborn child and if he child was more than 24 weeks old, she was to be informed that it was capable of surviving outside the womb.
The state also mandated that the physician disclose information on the technique to be used and provide medical instructions for the woman to follow subsequent to the abortion.
Lastly, the woman was to be informed of public and private agencies and services available to assist her during her pregnancy.
Waiting period: Rather than allow for abortion on demand, the Legislature wisely instituted a two-day waiting period from the time a woman entered the abortion clinic to the time when the abortion was to be performed. This enabled a women to consider her options before making such a life-changing decision at an emotional moment without all the medical facts.
Second trimester abortions: Recognizing that life-threatening complications are possible for women undergoing later-term abortions, the Legislature mandated that abortions after the first trimester be performed in fully equipped and regulated hospitals rather than freestanding, outpatient clinic. After all, health and safety for the women was supposed to be the intent of Roe vs. Wade.
It is clear that none of the challenged protections significantly limited abortion as a legal option for women in Tennessee.
The laws were not about prohibiting the practice of abortion. Rather, they were the work on concerned Tennesseans and their legislators trying to find consensus in the rocky waters of abortion debate.
In today's political environment where abortion clinics are allowed to operate in Tennessee without certification nor licensure, it seems all the more critical that basic, common sense protections such as informed consent, parental involvement and waiting periods be encouraged.
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VICTORY: INFORMED CONSENT AND WAITING PERIOD FOR ABORTION
SB 1222 (HB 0977)
The bill is now made up of this language: Amendment 1 and Amendment 2.
STATUS:
On April 15, SB 1222 passed the Senate floor 27-5:
Senators voting aye were: Bailey, Beavers, Bell, Bowling, Crowe, Dickerson, Gardenhire, Green, Gresham, Haile, Hensley, Jackson, Johnson, Kelsey, Ketron, Massey, McNally, Mr. Speaker Ramsey, Niceley, Norris, Overbey, Roberts, Southerland, Stevens, Tracy, Watson, Yager -- 27.
Senators voting no were: Harper, Harris, Kyle, Tate, Yarbro -- 5.
On April 22, after a horrendous and mind numbing, nearly an hour's debate, HB977 passed the House floor 79-18:
Representatives voting aye were: Alexander, Brooks H., Brooks K., Butt, Byrd, Calfee, Carr, Carter, Casada, Coley, Daniel, DeBerry, Doss, Dunlap, Dunn, Durham, Eldridge, Faison, Farmer, Forgety, Goins, Gravitt, Halford, Harrison, Hawk, Haynes, Hazlewood, Hill M., Hill T., Holsclaw, Holt, Howell, Hulsey, Johnson, Kane, Keisling, Kumar, Lamberth, Littleton, Lollar, Lundberg, Lynn, Madam Speaker Harwell, Marsh, Matheny, Matlock, McCormick, McDaniel, McManus, Moody, Pitts, Pody, Powers, Ragan, Ramsey, Reedy, Rogers, Sanderson, Sargent, Sexton C., Sexton J., Shaw, Shepard, Smith, Sparks, Spivey, Swann, Terry, Todd, Travis, Van Huss, Weaver, White D., White M., Wilburn, Williams, Windle, Wirgau, Womick -- 79.
Representatives voting no were: Akbari, Armstrong, Beck, Camper, Clemmons, Cooper, Favors, Fitzhugh, Gilmore, Hardaway, Jones, Miller, Mitchell, Parkinson, Powell, Stewart, Towns, Turner -- 18.
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VICTORY: LICENSING AND INSPECTING ABORTION PROVIDERS
SB 1280 (HB 1368)
Abortion - As introduced, requires facilities or physician offices where more than 50 abortions are performed in a calendar year to be licensed as ambulatory surgical treatment centers. As amended, this bill requires that abortion clinics be licensed and inspected.
STATUS:
On April 15th, SB1280 passed the Senate floor 28-4:
Senators voting aye were: Bailey, Beavers, Bell, Bowling, Briggs, Crowe, Dickerson, Gardenhire, Green, Gresham, Haile, Hensley, Jackson, Johnson, Kelsey, Ketron, Massey, McNally, Mr. Speaker Ramsey, Niceley, Norris, Overbey, Roberts, Southerland, Stevens, Tracy, Watson, Yager
-- 28. Senators voting no were: Harper, Harris, Kyle, Yarbro -- 4.
On April 21st, HB1368 passed the House floor 80-17:
Representatives voting aye were: Alexander, Brooks H., Brooks K., Butt, Byrd, Calfee, Carr, Carter, Casada, Coley, Daniel, DeBerry, Doss, Dunlap, Dunn, Durham, Eldridge, Faison, Farmer, Fitzhugh, Forgety, Goins, Gravitt, Halford, Harrison, Hawk, Haynes, Hazlewood, Hill M., Hill T., Holsclaw, Holt, Howell, Hulsey, Johnson, Kane, Keisling, Kumar, Lamberth, Littleton, Lollar, Lundberg, Lynn, Madam Speaker Harwell, Marsh, Matheny, Matlock, McCormick, McDaniel, McManus, Moody, Pitts, Pody, Powers, Ragan, Ramsey, Reedy, Rogers, Sanderson, Sargent, Sexton C., Sexton J., Shaw, Shepard, Smith, Sparks, Spivey, Swann, Terry, Todd, Travis, Van Huss, Weaver, White D., White M., Wilburn, Williams, Windle, Wirgau, Womick -- 80.
Representatives voting no were: Akbari, Armstrong, Camper, Clemmons, Cooper, Favors, Gilmore, Hardaway, Jernigan, Jones, Love, Miller, Mitchell, Powell, Stewart, Towns, Turner -- 17.
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