Tennessee Amendment 1 abortion measure passes

[theHandpuppet]

DAMMIT.

The Tennessean
Tennessee Amendment 1 abortion measure passes
Anita Wadhwani
November 5, 2014
Already lawmaker vows to back abortion regulations when legislature reconvenes

Tennessee voters by a solid margin backed Amendment 1, a measure that gives state lawmakers more power to restrict and regulate abortions.

The measure was perhaps the most closely watched and most contentious Election Day vote in Tennessee's midterm elections, which had few contested high-profile candidate races this year. It also was one of the most expensive ballot measures in Tennessee history.

It passed with 53 percent of the vote, but there was a clear urban and rural divide, with Davidson County voters opposing the measure by a 2-to-1 margin, and voters in Shelby, Knox and Hamilton counties voting against the measure.

Its passage has no immediate effect on abortion policies in Tennessee. But it will give lawmakers far more power in enacting abortion regulations and restrictions in Tennessee....

MORE at http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/04/amendment-takes-early-lead/18493787/

[onecaliberal]

1. Unconstitutional.

[VanillaRhapsody]

2. and so it begins...

[RockinLeft]

3. Hopefully we can get a judge to strike this down n/t

[theHandpuppet]

4. Tennessee’s extreme anti-choice amendment puts abortion further out of reach in the South

Salon
Wednesday, Nov 5, 2014
Tennessee’s extreme anti-choice amendment puts abortion further out of reach in the South
Two personhood measures failed Tuesday night, but Tennessee voters approved an extreme antiabortion amendment
Katie McDonough

Voters in North Dakota and Colorado overwhelmingly rejected personhood measures that would have stripped women of their constitutional rights by giving legal protections to fertilized eggs, but 53 percent of Tennesseans approved a measure that will potentially have equally devastating consequences for women in the state. Tennessee’s Amendment 1 passed on Tuesday night, stripping the state constitution of language affirming a woman’s right to privacy in making decisions about her pregnancy and giving lawmakers even more power to restrict abortion.

Here’s the new language in the state constitution:

Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion. 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.

Supporters of the measure claimed in the lead up to the election that it would simply make the constitution “neutral” on the issue of abortion, and it’s a line many conservatives are still hold while discussing the amendment. David Fowler, a former state senator who introduced a version of the measure more than a decade ago, told Nashville Public Radio that he didn’t view it as a blank check for anti-choice lawmakers to pass extreme legislation “because it would be rather self-defeating to pass an amendment, and then pass laws that can’t be enforced because they’re hung up in litigation.” (Not sure this is a memo that conservative lawmakers across the country have received, since the spaghetti-at-the-wall approach to limiting reproductive freedom seems to be the preferred method.)....

MORE at: http://www.salon.com/2014/11/05/tennessees_extreme_anti_choice_amendment_puts_legal_abortion_further_out_of_reach_in_the_south/

[Freddie]

5. So they will now allow the state to ban abortions that would save the mother's life

Guess human sacrifice is OK after all.
I've always wanted to visit Graceland but now I will never spend one penny in that state.

[shenmue]

6. Aaaaand we're done.

Buh-bye, humanity!