Chattanooga: Anti-abortion group pushes for amendment

NASHVILLE — Abortion-rights foes announced Tuesday a coordinated effort to rally public and legislative support for a constitutional amendment that would effectively remove any right to an abortion from the Tennessee Constitution.

Family Action of Tennessee President David Fowler, a former Republican state senator from Signal Mountain, criticized a House subcommittee that killed Senate Joint Resolution 127 in a 6-3 vote on Feb. 26.

“Now is the time to let as many people in Tennessee know that six people are standing in the way of 6 million people having a say in their constitution on the issue of abortion,” said Mr. Fowler, who was joined by Tennessee Eagle Forum President Bobbie Patray in a series of news conferences across the state, including Chattanooga.

The two said they hope to build support with a Web site — www.LifePetition.org — and educational videos for suspending House rules and bring SJR 127 directly to the House floor. Web site visitors can add their names to a petition backing the resolution and also contact lawmakers.

During a news conference Tuesday at the National Memorial for the Unborn in Chattanooga, Mr. Fowler called the effort to push through the amendment “urgent” and “crucial.” Supporters hope to get the measure on the 2010 ballot which requires passage in this General Assembly and approval by two-thirds of the House and Senate in the new General Assembly that takes office next year. If the effort fails, the process starts over and the earliest the amendment could go before voters is 2014.

It takes 66 members to suspend House rules, and Mr. Fowler acknowledged the educational effort represents an “end-of-session push.”

Ms. Patray, who also spoke at the Chattanooga news conference, noted that the amendment itself would not stop any abortions from happening but would give the General Assembly the opportunity to pass a partial-birth abortion ban.

Abortion-rights supporters accused Mr. Fowler, Mrs. Patray and others of using “scare tactics” by playing up the issue of “partial-birth abortion,” a late-term abortion procedure, in both their statements and on the Web site.

In making their case on during a news conference in Nashville’s Legislative Plaza, Mr. Fowler and Mrs. Patray focused on partial-birth abortion.

“Tennessee has no law against the gruesome act of partial-birth abortion,” Mrs. Patray said.

“I just think it’s a desperate move on Sen. Fowler’s part to do this, to try to confuse people by saying there’s no ban in Tennessee,” said Jeff Teague, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee. “There’s a federal ban in place.”

Mr. Teague also noted the Tennessee Supreme Court never struck down the state’s ban on partial-birth abortion.

The resolution, which passed the Senate in January as it did in 2001, 2004 and 2006, seeks to void a 2000 state Supreme Court ruling saying the Tennessee Constitution offers greater abortion rights protections than the U.S. Constitution. The resolution offers new language for the state constitution that says “nothing in this constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”

Senate proponents said the proposed amendment would not in itself ban abortions in Tennessee. But it would let the General Assembly enact what sponsor Sen. Diane Black, R-Gallatin, has called “common-sense protections” such as a 48-hour waiting period struck down by the Tennessee Supreme Court in its 2000 decision.

American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee Executive Director Hedy Weinberg said she thought the federal ban was fairly broad.

Rep. JoAnne Favors, D-Chattanooga, was among the members of the House Public Health and Family Assistance Subcommittee who opposed SJR 127 earlier this year.

A registered nurse, Mrs. Favors did not return phone messages Tuesday. In arguing against the resolution in February, she warned that if abortions were banned, women would still seek illegal abortions and would be “coming into the hospital either dead on arrival or hemorrhaging.”