Three anti-choice bills will be heard tomorrow, Tuesday, 3/31/09 at 4:00 pm, in the Tennessee State House House Public Health & Family Assistance Subcommittee: HJR 0066 (Rep. Debra Maggart, R-Hendersonville), HJR 0088 (Rep. Charles Curtiss, D-Sparta), and HJR 0127 (Rep. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown).
Because the big yellow buttons have already been made (and Rep. Curtiss is a Democrat), I’m going to go out on a limb and say that HJR 0127 is the one that will, unfortunately, make it out of committee tomorrow.
As previously discussed, these resolutions are the first step toward amending the Tennessee State Constitution to take away the limited privacy protections women still have to control their own reproductive health. If the State Constitution is successfully amended, and Roe v. Wade overturned, women here would no longer have the constitutionally protected right to privacy.
Even worse is that all three of the bills state 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.” In other words, if the Constitution is amended in the way in which these three legislators hope, then the decision as to what would be best for the 9-year-old girl carrying twins that are the result of being raped by her stepfather, would be solely in their hands. And so would the decision of the Tennessee mother (who wrote an open letter to Rep. Maggart) with a daughter diagnosed in utero with a fatal chromosomal disorder, a cystic hygroma, a clubbed foot, very little brain matter, and kidney malformations, and who wasn’t expected to live any longer than the gestation period – or less.
And if you saw this afternoon’s discussion of a certain gun bill, your only reaction to this should be, oh s**t.
In other news, Did you know that although Tennessee is ranked 20th in providing family planning public funding (publicly supported contraceptive services and supplies), we’re ranked 42nd in family planning laws and policies (whether laws and policies are likely to facilitate access to contraceptive services and information), 30th in family planning service availability (how well states meet existing need for subsidized contraceptive services and supplies), and 40th in births to teen mothers ages 15-19.
If the members of the Tennessee legislature wanted real solutions, they would do two things. First, they’d be honest and admit that there are already a number of Tennessee laws which regulate abortion – including parental consent, a ban on late-term abortions and patient informed consent. Then, they would focus on researching and providing the most effective education and resources that would actually, you know, reduce – or completely eliminate – unintended pregnancies.
Recent Comments