Save the Tennessee Constitution

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruling in September 2000

On September 5, 2000, the Tennessee Supreme Court decided the case: Planned Parenthood of Middle Tennessee et al. v. Sundquist. The Court held that the Tennessee Constitution provides an independent right to privacy and greater protections for reproductive freedom than the United States Constitution.
The decision was written by Riley Anderson of Oak Ridge.

Click for a discussion of the decision

May 19, 2009 Lyda Phillips

Tennessee's state legislature has passed a measure that could strip the state constitution of abortion rights

The state House of Representatives May 18 voted by a margin of 76-22 for SJR 127, an anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution. Proponents defeated a Democratic attempt to make exceptions for rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. The state Senate previously passed the measure by a 24-8 margin.
Abortion Would Still Be Legal
The measure still has a long way to go before voters would decide on final passage or rejection.
First, SJR 127 would have to pass both chambers by a two-thirds majority in either 2011 or 2012 to move forward. This session, it passed both the House and the Senate by that required supermajority. It would then go on the ballot in 2014, and it would take a majority of voters to strip abortion rights out of the state constitution. Even then, because of the precedence of U.S. Supreme Court ruling, abortion would still be legal in Tennessee under Roe v. Wade.
Amending the Tennessee constitution would nullify a 2000 Tennessee Supreme Court decision, Planned Parenthood v. Sundquist, which found that the state constitution affords stronger protection for abortion rights than does the U.S. Constitution and launched the current effort to amend the state's constitution
The state Republican Party said May 18 that the measure "seeks to restore commonsense regulations on abortion to Tennessee state law that were erased by the liberal state Supreme Court." The amendment would make it explicit that the state Constitution does not recognize a "right to abortion." Subsequent legislative action would be required to make such provisions as parental notification, informed consent and a 48-hour waiting period state law

Constitutional Amendment on Abortion a Step Closer to Voters

by Mike Morrow on April 18, 2011

The Senate on Monday approved a measure 24-8 that paves the way for a state constitutional amendment on abortion.
The proposed amendment takes aim at a Tennessee Supreme Court ruling in 2000, Planned Parenthood v. Sundquist, that said the state's Constitution provides a stronger right to privacy than the U.S. Constitution, therefore ending any restrictions the Legislature had put on abortions before that ruling.
Advocates of the measure say the action simply puts Tennessee back into a neutral position on abortion.

Press Release from Tennessee Right to Life, May 24, 2011:

More than a decade after the Tennessee Supreme Court issued a wrong and radical ruling claiming a 'fundamental' right to abortion in the Tennessee Constitution, bi-partisan super majorities in the General Assembly have sent the matter for Tennesseans to decide in a public vote during the next governor's election in 2014.
"At long last the people of Tennessee will have their say in this matter of life and death," said Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life. "Should a handful of activist judges make Tennessee's laws on abortion or should it be the people acting through their elected representatives in the state Legislature? We are confident that when it's all said and done, the power for deciding such questions will be returned to the people," Harris said.
As required for every proposed amendment to the state Constitution, SJR 127 passed for the first time in 2009 by votes of 77-21 in the state House and 23-9 in the state Senate. Requirement for super-majority during second passage was achieved in 2011 by votes of 76-18 in the state House and 24-8 in the state Senate.

The Proposed Amendment

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.

Tennessee Constitutional Amendment on Abortion to Go to Voters, Planned Parenthood Responds

May 22nd, 2011 by admin

SJR127, a joint resolution in the Tennessee legislature to "provide that nothing in Constitution of Tennessee secures or protects right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion," has passed through the legislature. It will go to a public vote on the 2014 state ballot. The resolution has been raised for years, but never made it through both arms of the legislature until now.
Supporters argue that the change would Tennessean's abortion rights in line with those in the rest of the country by making our state Constitution neutral on the matter. Voting in the change could allow further restrictions, and in the (presumably unlikely) event of a total Roe overturn, it would allow a state ban on abortion.
Naturally, I'm not too enthused about this move to make the bodily autonomy and individual decisions of all of my state's women a matter for a popular vote. One in three of us have abortions in our lifetime and slightly more than half of Tennessee's population are women, but I'm going to go on record now predicting that - barring a hugely successful campaign between now and 2014 - this measure is going to pass in the popular vote.

Here's what Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee had to say about it.

TENNESSEE GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO MAKE ABORTION ILLEGAL

Passage of SJR-127 is attack on the women of Tennessee
"SJR-127 is dangerous to health and lives of women we all know and love - our wives, daughters, sisters, friend and neighbors," said Jeff Teague, President and CEO of PPMET. "This proposed amendment to our Constitution is about banning abortion. To say otherwise is insincere and, frankly, dishonest. It will allow for the gross intrusion of government into the privates lives and personal medical decisions of women in Tennessee."
While a number of restrictions and regulations on abortion are already in place, supporters of the proposed amendment say that it is necessary to allow for "common sense" restrictions of abortion and because abortion is largely unregulated. Among the current restrictions on abortion are a ban on later-term abortion, parental consent for minors and informed consent.
"The number of abortions in Tennessee is declining - everyone agrees this is a positive trend - but SJR-127 does nothing to reduce unintended pregnancies or to help eliminate the need for abortion in Tennessee," Teague states. "What we need are common sense prevention measures like comprehensive sexuality education and broader access to family planning services like low-cost, affordable birth control. We should all focus on how to prevent unwanted pregnancies and how to offer women who have unplanned pregnancies the resources and support they need."