The Tennessee House Health and Human Resources Committee on Tuesday passed the Senate version of a resolution (S.J.R. 127) supporting an amendment to the state constitution stating that "nothing in the Constitution of Tennessee secures or protects the right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion," the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. The committee had rejected prior attempts to pass a similar amendment, according to the Commercial Appeal. Approval of the amendment marks a key step in the long-running effort by abortion-rights opponents to overturn a 2000 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling that declared that the state constitution provides stronger protections than the U.S. Constitution for abortion rights and struck down several state restrictions on the procedure, the Commercial Appeal reports. The amendment would need approval by two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate during the next two-year term of the General Assembly for the measure to proceed to a statewide vote in 2014.
Committee members also voted 16-11 to table House Democratic Leader Rep. Gary Odom's proposal to include language in the resolution that would allow future legislatures to ban abortion "except in cases involving rape or incest or when the life of the pregnant woman is threatened." Odom's proposal also would have banned public funding of abortion and prohibited so-called "partial-birth" abortion (Locker, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 4/8).
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