TN Voters To Decide Abortion Rights
A proposed constitutional amendment to allow the state to impose stricter limits on abortions will go before voters in 2014.
The House on Friday gave final approval to the resolution sponsored by Republican Rep. Debra Maggart of Hendersonville on a 76-18 vote.
The resolution says “nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”
If adopted by voters, the measure would void a 2000 Supreme Court ruling that threw out mandatory 48-hour waiting periods before abortions could take place, required clinics to provide detailed information about the procedure and that all but first-term abortions needed to be performed in hospitals.
The measure easily cleared the two-thirds majorities required in both chambers to be placed on the ballot.
