Yesterday, I stood in the packed gallery as the Tennessee Senate voted 24 to 9 to pass, on 3rd reading, SJR127 - an amendment to the Tennessee Constitution that, if
Roe v. Wade were overturned, could open the door to banning ALL abortions in Tennessee. It was a long morning.
In a reaction to a
Tennessee Supreme Court Decision in 2000, in which the Court found that the women in Tennessee have a fundamental, constitutional right to abortion, anti-choice proponents decided to amend that document. The sponsor of the Bill, Sen. Fowler, refused to include language that would make exceptions in cases of rape, incest or where the life of the mother were in danger. Sen. Haynes proposed an amendment that would write those exceptions into the language. His amendment also included a specific ban on "partial birth abortion," as the amendment referred to it.
There were some impassioned speeches from several senators, urging the body to adopt the Sen. Haynes's amendment.
Sen. Cohen (my progressive legislative hero), who voted to table the amendment, stood to explain why he was about to vote the way he would: in effect, he said it made this abhorrent constitutional amendment more palatable. He would rather the record show the names of all the Senators who voted against women's interests.
The amendment was tabled.
Sen. Kurita, a nurse who is running for Bill Frist's seat, stood and said that this body should be making neither medical nor conscience decisions for Tennesseans. She asked Sen. Fowler what he knew about certain medical conditions, all of which would jeopardize the life of a woman - or girl - if she were pregnant. There were cancers that accelerated with pregnancy, cancers that cannot be treated during pregnancies, and a host of other health conditions that could be life threatening in the event of pregnancy. He was clueless - and unyielding.
Using faulty logic (which no one in the Senate stood to point out, and those in the gallery are forbidden from pointing out), the author of the bill, Sen. Fowler, said that if one is against some abortions, it must because one recognizes that abortion is killing, so therefore we must be against all abortions - otherwise we would allow all abortions. He said there was no such thing as a "potential human being," only "human beings." (Senator, does that mean there's no such thing as a seed - only mature plants?? - But, as I say, those in the gallery are forbidden to speak.) He declared that we have to protect the rights of ALL people to live - this while he was proposing an amendment by which, if it is adopted, the right of a cluster of cells to grow would trump the right of woman or girl to live.
The process of amending the constitution in TN is a long one. The proposed amendment has to get through both houses of the TN legislature, two years in a row. Then it goes on the ballot, and the people of TN get to vote.
I'm torn. As I said, this proposed constitutional amendment has come before the TN legislature before - 2 years ago - and was defeated in the House. And now it's back (as the repugs try to get their wedge issue ducks in a row for the 2008 election). While I stood in the gallery, dreading the Senate vote result I knew would come, I couldn't help but wonder if this outrageous constitutional amendment - in all it's ugly, anti-woman/girl, socially unjust glory - shouldn't find its way to a popular vote by the people. Surely, as written -- with absolutely no exceptions written in -- even conservative Tennesseans would see the absolute injustice of the amendment and vote it down once and for all.
I wish I had a more upbeat thought with which to close this diary. All I can say is -
Stay strong!