Opponents of Amendment 1 are having trouble with the truth
from the Yes on 1 Campaign
Pro-abortion activists have been circulating fundraising emails making the following claims, all of them false. Please know the facts and speak out in support of Amendment 1.
When They Say: “Amendment One is an unprecedented power grab by the Tennessee state legislature to take away women’s right to choose.”
You Say: Amendment 1 restores to the people our right to debate and decide what policies are appropriate with regard to abortion, just as we do on any matter of importance. The Amendment specifically states “the people retain the right… to enact, amend or repeal statutes regarding abortion.” Even in the most difficult of circumstances, proponents of Amendment 1 trust the conscience and common sense of Tennessee’s people to do what is right and fair.
When They Say: “It is from a Republican legislature whose senators voted unanimously to ban abortion with no exceptions, not even to allow a woman to save her own life!”
You Say: Since 1973, there has never been a vote to ban abortion in Tennessee, period. Amendment 1 enjoys bi-partisan support and was placed on the ballot by super-majorities including the Democratic Leader and Democratic Caucus Chairman. In total, 39% of House Democrats voted in support of Amendment 1 during final legislative passage in 2011.
When they Say: “It is a deceptively worded constitutional amendment, designed to confuse and mislead voters, and all of us will be voting on it this November.”
You Say: Amendment 1 returns the Tennessee Constitution to neutral after a 2000 ruling by the Tennessee Supreme Court which claimed a broader right to abortion in the Tennessee Constitution than Roe v. Wade or the U.S. Constitution. It restores the rights of Tennesseans to decide what abortion law should be in our state rather than leaving policy decisions to the Judiciary.
Tags: abortion, Tennessee Amendment 1, Yes on 1
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2014 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Pro-Life in Tennessee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
4 Responses to “Opponents of Amendment 1 are having trouble with the truth”
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July 5th, 2014 at 2:44 pm
Excellent article. States the facts, very refreshing considering some of the outright ridiculous lies the opponents of the amendment have been spreading. If their cause is so just, why can’t they just stick to the facts? We are a civilized people, do we need to stoop to name calling and emotionally charged deceptive rhetoric?
Thank you for taking the time to shed some much needed light on this subject.
July 8th, 2014 at 3:30 pm
Pro-life blog buzz 7-8-14 - Jill Stanek says:[…] Fletcher Armstrong seeks to educate voters about the misleading and inaccurate statements being spread by abortion supporters regarding an amendment to the Tennessee state constitution which will be on the ballot in November. Amendment 1, if successful, would allow state legislators to again regulate abortion: […]
October 31st, 2014 at 4:36 pm
I am a little confused here. Maybe you could help me out. I thought the pro-life plan for Tennessee, as I understood it, was to pursue a two-step process to end abortion in Tennessee.
Step 1 of the process is to revise the Tennessee Constitution to remove a constitutional roadblock in Tennessee(one that does not exist in other states)by passing Amendment 1. A “Yes on Amendment 1” vote would take down the constitutional barrier that now prevents the Tennessee legislature from regulating abortion in Tennessee.
Step 2 is then to use our overwhelmingly conservative Republican majority in the Tennessee legislature to pass new laws to regulate abortion in Tennessee—and we were going to soft pedal that as a women’s health measure to garner votes. However, the real plan is actually to go with our version of the already implemented “end abortion through regulation” plans already being put into place in surrounding states, which is to severely minimize or end abortion in Tennessee by regulating abortion mills so heavily that they will be forced to close down. No one can get an abortion in Tennessee if all the abortion clinics are closed down.
The goal after all for pro-life people in Tennessee is to end abortion. That has always been the goal. Right? Did I misunderstand something about the plans?
In recent days, I have been reading several very concerning articles about judges in U.S. District Court who have already been striking down state-level plans to end abortion through regulation. The court judgements say that the primary reason they are being struck down is because their purpose is not to regulate abortion clinics but instead to deny women their constitutional right to an abortion—and doing so is illegal. If our Step 2 here in Tennessee is just the same, which I understand that it is, then what is to prevent a federal judge from striking down the Tennessee plan to regulate clinics into closure.
This is all very confusing. Can you help me and other voters to understand it better?
November 3rd, 2014 at 9:42 pm
Charles,
Thanks for your comment. As to any sort of legislative pro-life plan for Tennessee, I am definitely not the one to ask. I am not part of the circle of people who write pro-life legislation and devise strategies to get legislation passed. I am the Southeast Director for the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), where our focus is to develop/implement public education programs. Other than voter education, we don’t get involved in election campaigns. We don’t endorse candidates. FAB is my own personal blog, and the opinions expressed therein are those of myself and/or one of the FAB contributors; they are not necessarily the policy positions of CBR.
Having said all of that, I can share my own personal views relating to your comments:
Here in Tennessee, the abortion industry has been trying to convince voters that Amendment 1 will make abortion illegal. That is a barefaced lie, easily disprovable. However, it may yet work because even in a state like Tennessee, most people still want abortion to be legal (although most people also say that they want the kind of restrictions that Amendment 1 would allow).
The Tennessee legislature can never make abortion illegal as long as Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton are in effect. Nor can restrictions be enacted which would put all clinics out of business. As long as people are willing to pay to get rid of a child, somebody will find a way to provide that “service.” There are many states which have enacted the kind of restrictions that are supported by most Tennesseans and allowed by Amendment 1, and none of those states are without at least one abortion clinic, and most such states have multiple clinics. The suggestion that Amendment 1 will make abortion illegal or inaccessible is a disingenuous invention of the abortion industry, designed to mislead voters.
Every abortion kills a living human being. Therefore, no abortion can be justified unless necessary to save the mothers life. However, as tragic as any loss of life is, it is doubly tragic when a baby is killed who might have been saved had her mother known more about the nature of the abortion procedure itself, the development of her child, the availability of resources to assist her, the risks to her own physical and emotional health, etc. That’s why most people support regulations such as (1) requiring that abortion clinics be licensed and regulated, just like any other industry, (2) giving women unbiased information about what the procedure entails, what the risks are, and what the alternatives are, just like every other medical procedure, (3) ensuring that women are not being coerced to have abortions against their will, and (4) ensuring that sexual abusers of children cannot use abortion to cover up sexual abuse of minors.
If Amendment 1 fails, it won’t be because Tennesseans changed their views overnight regarding these kind of protections; it will be because the abortion industry was successful in making people believe the provably false claim that Amendment 1 would make all abortion illegal or inaccessible in this state. (One ad even suggests that Amendment 1 would make abortion illegal even when necessary to save the mother’s life.)
Yes, a federal judge could strike down regulations in Tennessee which are deemed to be too restrictive. If you look at what’s happening in other states, some of the protections for women and children are being struck down, but some are being upheld. (Although I have to confess that I don’t follow these court cases very closely on a day-to-day basis, so please enlighten me if I am wrong on that point.)
And by the way, thre is no constitutional barrier to regulating abortions in Tennessee. That constitutional language is simply not present. (Or if it does, perhaps you could point it out to me.) It is only the Supreme Court ruling in PPMT vs Sundquist which prevents the regulations that most Tennesseans support.
Thanks again for your comment; I hope that all makes sense.