Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Tell me again
Tennessee Amendment 1 abortion measure passes
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.
...
Backers of the amendment were jubilant, embracing at the offices of Tennessee Right to Life, the campaign headquarters for the effort.
"Obviously for those of us who believe life is sacred, this was the necessary first step toward protection not only for the unborn but for women and girls who fall prey to people looking to profit from untimely or unexpected pregnancies," said Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life and a coordinator for the "Yes on 1" campaign, who has devoted much of the past 14 years fighting for the measure to get on the ballot.
Harris said his group's next step is returning to the legislature to persuade lawmakers to restore a package of laws stricken by a 2000 state Supreme Court decision, including requiring a short waiting period for women seeking an abortion, a requirement to provide educational materials and greater regulation of abortion facilities.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/04/amendment-takes-early-lead/18493787/
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.
...
Backers of the amendment were jubilant, embracing at the offices of Tennessee Right to Life, the campaign headquarters for the effort.
"Obviously for those of us who believe life is sacred, this was the necessary first step toward protection not only for the unborn but for women and girls who fall prey to people looking to profit from untimely or unexpected pregnancies," said Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life and a coordinator for the "Yes on 1" campaign, who has devoted much of the past 14 years fighting for the measure to get on the ballot.
Harris said his group's next step is returning to the legislature to persuade lawmakers to restore a package of laws stricken by a 2000 state Supreme Court decision, including requiring a short waiting period for women seeking an abortion, a requirement to provide educational materials and greater regulation of abortion facilities.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/04/amendment-takes-early-lead/18493787/
The Really Crazy Anti-Abortion Strategy on the Ballot in Tennessee
Tennessee out-crazies all the other states with its proposed constitutional amendment.
By Dahlia Lithwick
That’s right. Tennessee is trying to amend its constitution to never protect abortion, ever, under any circumstance. And how did the state get here? In 2000, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled in a case called Planned Parenthood v. Sundquist that the Tennessee constitution affords even more protection than the U.S. Constitution to Tennesseans seeking abortions. The court determined that “a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy is a vital part of ... the Tennessee Constitution,” and it held that Tennessee could only pass very narrow restrictions on abortion as a result. As part of that decision, the court struck down several laws passed in 1998 by the Tennessee legislature, including a measure requiring hospitalization for second-trimester abortions, an informed consent provision, and a two-day waiting period. Republicans in the state legislature immediately reacted by attempting to amend the state constitution. Those proposed amendments failed to pass the state legislature until 2011. Now it’s on the November ballot.
Don’t be confused by references to rape and incest and the life of the mother in the language of the proposed amendment. As Eleanor Clift writes, “The second sentence is craftily written to leave the impression that exemptions are either in place, or could easily be put in place.” But the proposed wording would in fact allow the state to regulate all those interests out of existence. There is no question that this measure goes far beyond the proposed “personhood” language in other states to ensure that legislatures could pass any future legislation, including regulations that could ban abortions even to save mothers’ lives or to protect incest victims. It would allow laws that criminalize harm to a fetus or even ban access to methods of birth control deemed to be abortifacients.
...
The insidious beauty of Amendment 1 is that it operates as a Trojan horse to permit any and all future regulation. And as one local blogger notes, the fact that state legislators won’t disclose which kinds of measures they seek to pass establishes that this is precisely the point. As Stacey Campfield, a Tennessee senator from the 7th District (Knox County) told the Family Action Council of Tennessee: “After (Amendment 1) passes, I have several ideas but for fear of those ideas being used to help defeat Amendment 1, I will refrain from talking about those at this time. I doubt there are any ideas I would oppose that would restrict abortion in Tennessee.”
This referendum has implications that go far beyond the state borders. As all the states surrounding Tennessee passed more and more anti-choice legislation in recent years, Tennessee came to be the state that neighboring women turned to to obtain services denied to them in Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky. This meant that by 2010, 1 out of every 4 abortions in the state was sought by an out-of-state patient. Terrell (director of Choices, a Memphis reproductive health clinic that provides abortion services) explains it this way: “If Amendment 1 passes, the state of Tennessee would quickly join her Southern sisters in passing the kind of extreme regulations that make access to abortion impossible. This is, of course, the goal of the amendment’s drafters and supporters.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/10/tennessee_anti_abortion_amendment_1_voters_will_decide_whether_legislature.html
Tennessee out-crazies all the other states with its proposed constitutional amendment.
By Dahlia Lithwick
That’s right. Tennessee is trying to amend its constitution to never protect abortion, ever, under any circumstance. And how did the state get here? In 2000, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled in a case called Planned Parenthood v. Sundquist that the Tennessee constitution affords even more protection than the U.S. Constitution to Tennesseans seeking abortions. The court determined that “a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy is a vital part of ... the Tennessee Constitution,” and it held that Tennessee could only pass very narrow restrictions on abortion as a result. As part of that decision, the court struck down several laws passed in 1998 by the Tennessee legislature, including a measure requiring hospitalization for second-trimester abortions, an informed consent provision, and a two-day waiting period. Republicans in the state legislature immediately reacted by attempting to amend the state constitution. Those proposed amendments failed to pass the state legislature until 2011. Now it’s on the November ballot.
Don’t be confused by references to rape and incest and the life of the mother in the language of the proposed amendment. As Eleanor Clift writes, “The second sentence is craftily written to leave the impression that exemptions are either in place, or could easily be put in place.” But the proposed wording would in fact allow the state to regulate all those interests out of existence. There is no question that this measure goes far beyond the proposed “personhood” language in other states to ensure that legislatures could pass any future legislation, including regulations that could ban abortions even to save mothers’ lives or to protect incest victims. It would allow laws that criminalize harm to a fetus or even ban access to methods of birth control deemed to be abortifacients.
...
The insidious beauty of Amendment 1 is that it operates as a Trojan horse to permit any and all future regulation. And as one local blogger notes, the fact that state legislators won’t disclose which kinds of measures they seek to pass establishes that this is precisely the point. As Stacey Campfield, a Tennessee senator from the 7th District (Knox County) told the Family Action Council of Tennessee: “After (Amendment 1) passes, I have several ideas but for fear of those ideas being used to help defeat Amendment 1, I will refrain from talking about those at this time. I doubt there are any ideas I would oppose that would restrict abortion in Tennessee.”
This referendum has implications that go far beyond the state borders. As all the states surrounding Tennessee passed more and more anti-choice legislation in recent years, Tennessee came to be the state that neighboring women turned to to obtain services denied to them in Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky. This meant that by 2010, 1 out of every 4 abortions in the state was sought by an out-of-state patient. Terrell (director of Choices, a Memphis reproductive health clinic that provides abortion services) explains it this way: “If Amendment 1 passes, the state of Tennessee would quickly join her Southern sisters in passing the kind of extreme regulations that make access to abortion impossible. This is, of course, the goal of the amendment’s drafters and supporters.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/10/tennessee_anti_abortion_amendment_1_voters_will_decide_whether_legislature.html
Tennessee Right to Life has been the key organizer of the campaign. Gov. Bill Haslam, General Assembly Republican leadership and the state's Republican Party also back the measure. The campaign had raised more than $1.5 million by Oct. 25. Reality television family the Duggars, who are featured in the TLC network series 19 Kids and Counting, have twice made public appearances in support of the measure. Faith groups including the Southern Baptist Convention, all three of Tennessee's Catholic bishops and a number of denominations have come out in support of the amendment.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/02/tennessee-abortion-measure-myths-facts/18375351/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/02/tennessee-abortion-measure-myths-facts/18375351/
Okay religious apologists, go ahead.
Tell me that I should ignore religion because it doesn't affect me.
That I'm the fucking bully when they are the ones interfering with MY right to not have children and abort a fetus that may kill me if I carry it to term.
That I'm angry because of some childhood trauma.
That I should stfu and sit down because I'm making other non-believers look bad.
That religious leaders like the pope don't deserve every bit of venom directed at them.
Tell me again.
I dare you.
~ thanks for listening, A/A, I would post this in the Religion forum except I know I'd end up regretting it.
37 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
These shit for brains voters....
Doing what their illiterate asshole preacher tells them to do then grinning like a potty training reject. Totally lost patience with these idiots.
But I don't want anyone else to be attacked because I poked the bear. 
No need to worry your pretty little head, ma'am. There's a vast army of Right-Thinking Liberal Xian knights riding to your rescue...
[center][font style="font-family:papyrus,'Brush Script MT','comic sans MS',fantasy;" size=5 color=teal]Just wanted to let you know
[/font]
[center][font style="font-family:papyrus,'Brush Script MT','comic sans MS',fantasy;" size=5 color=teal]I just wanted to say[/font]
[/center]
[font style="font-family:papyrus,'Brush Script MT','comic sans MS',fantasy;" size=3 color=teal]Is letting you know that we are aware that you are watching this thread and don't care bothering you?
You are the one who decided to link to here in an effort to misrepresent BMUS and shame us all somehow. Well guess what?
[center]
[/center][/font]
But I would never use their posts against them in another forum. It's too much like the r/t poster who stalked a member of A/A and used his participation in a mental health support group to smear him.
They're welcome to their safe havens, and a few of them do respect ours.
For the ones who don't, I say let's give them something to squirm about. 
I borrowed this from spanone's thread about CNN, remember Scott Desjarlais? I wrote about him on DU last election cycle, here's a quick recap:
Look at Tennessee's 4th Congressional District, where Rep. Scott Desjarlais cruised to re-election over token Democratic opposition.
Desjarlais, a physician by trade, was first elected in 2010, but this election marked his first time on the ballot since a full accounting of his torrid personal life burst into view two years ago.
His divorce proceedings, made public in late 2012, revealed that the pro-life Republican had slept with multiple patients and impregnated one of them before pressuring her to get an abortion. He also demanded that his ex-wife terminate two pregnancies.
But never mind all that: Desjarlais, who has apologized for his past, represents a conservative district and has an R next to his name. He won easily.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/05/politics/scandal-congress-digital/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
Desjarlais, a physician by trade, was first elected in 2010, but this election marked his first time on the ballot since a full accounting of his torrid personal life burst into view two years ago.
His divorce proceedings, made public in late 2012, revealed that the pro-life Republican had slept with multiple patients and impregnated one of them before pressuring her to get an abortion. He also demanded that his ex-wife terminate two pregnancies.
But never mind all that: Desjarlais, who has apologized for his past, represents a conservative district and has an R next to his name. He won easily.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/05/politics/scandal-congress-digital/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
To see just how fucked up the state is, have a look at Bradley County
U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-District 4), who narrowly won his primary in August, retained his seat in defeating Lenda Sherrell (D) by 63-28 percent.
DesJarlais carried Bradley County, but with a thinner margin of 58 to 35 percent.
All four of the state’s constitutional amendments passed, having met the threshold of 50 percent one plus of the total number of votes in the governor’s race.
Bradley County voters’ enthusiasm was greater than the statewide vote projected.
Amendment 1 concerning abortion regulations passed 52 to 47 percent, as local voters voiced their approval 68 to 31 percent.
I've been in chronic WTF? mode since he was elected the first time.
I know commenting on people's looks is shallow and illiberal but how would like to have to look at this face for the next who knows how many years?:
Like puke with eyes.
I've been attracted to men of all ages, shapes and sizes, and just looking at Desjarlais makes my uterus shrivel.
