March 16, 2009: Attacks on Reproductive Freedom and Academic Freedom and Student Safety - Contact Your Legislators

Dear ACLU-TN Alert Network,

Attacks on reproductive freedom and academic freedom and student safety rights continue at the legislature this week. Please read the information below to explain to your legislators why they should vote NO on the bills that are eroding civil liberties in Tennessee.

Reproductive Freedom:

On Tuesday, 3-17, in the House Public Health & Family Assistance Subcommittee, HJR61, HJR66 and HJR127 will be voted on. While supporters say these initiatives would only allow the legislature to pass “common-sense” restrictions on abortion, their long-range goal is to rob women of the right to access safe and legal reproductive health care in Tennessee. Please urge your legislator and members of the committee to vote NO on HJR61, HJR66 and HJR127. Please click here for talking points.

In addition, two anti-choice bills - HB445 and  HB2204 - are pending in the committee. Both bills, sponsored by Rep. Maddox, would require a 24-hour waiting period for “a period of reflection” after a woman receives informed consent.  Please contact your legislator and tell them to vote NO. Government-mandated delays serve no purpose other than to make obtaining an abortion more difficult, dangerous and expensive for the women who are least able to bear the burden of an unwanted pregnancy.  The harm of such restrictions is felt most by those who have the fewest resources - poor women, minors, rural women, working women without insurance or sick leave and battered women.

The mandatory delay ostensibly exists so that a woman has time to “think over” this information.  Other medical procedures, even much more dangerous and complicated surgeries, do not have legally required waiting periods.  Mandating delays for abortion implies that women who seek abortions do so without adequate reflection and are incapable of making reasoned, moral decisions regarding their health and future.  In reality, almost all women, by the time they arrive at a clinic, are very clear about their reasons for wanting an abortion.  A built-in delay already exists between the moment a woman finds out she is pregnant and the time she enters a clinic, during which period a woman has ample time to think over her decision

Finally, on Wednesday (3-18) at 12:30 p.m., the House Health Care Facilities Subcommittee will vote on two bills that also attempt to erode access to reproductive health care for Tennessee women.   HB819 (Campfield) would require that a death certificate be issued for each abortion performed in the State and HB862 (Mumpower) would define “inception of human life” to mean the moment of conception. Both these bills attempt to create fetal personhood under the law, a strategy used by the anti-choice movement to try to outlaw abortion. Please urge your state representative and members of the subcommittee to vote NO on HB819 and HB862.

Student Safety and Academic Freedom

HB821 – a bill jeopardizing student safety and academic freedom – will be heard in the House Education K-12 Subcommittee at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. As we discussed in our last alert, HB821 would prevent teachers, school counselors and other school administrators from providing “any instruction or materials discussing sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.” Remind your elected officials that teachers, school counselors and other school administrators - not the General Assembly - are the most qualified to decide what is the best way to responsibly teach about diversity and other current events affecting students today. Please click here for talking points.

To find out who your state representative and state senator are, visit http://www.capitol.tn.gov and under “Find My Legislator” enter your address and click “search.” If you legislators serve on any of the committees that are hearing the bills described above, please make an extra effort to contact them. Because the pending bills would affect all Tennesseans, please contact those legislators serving on committees hearing the bills even if they are not your elected officials, and urge them to vote NO.

Many thanks,

Hedy