David Fowler President

March 9, 2009

The debate over the passage of Senate Joint Resolution 127 (and a companion House version known as HJR 0066), the proposal to amend our state constitution to once again make it neutral on the issue of abortion rights, will begin in earnest this week. And the political games have already begun.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear SJR 127 at 1:00 p.m. (CDT) this Wednesday. It should come out of the committee without any trouble and may be on the Senate floor as early as next week, depending on whether senators, having passed the resolution four times, want to wait to see if it can finally begin to clear the hurdles in the House that have kept it from the House floor.

And in the House the games have begun. A major issue in the election of this year’s speaker was whether the nominee was pro-life. This was important because former Speaker Jimmy Naifeh had always stacked the Public Health Subcommittee of the House Health Committee with pro-abortion supporters. And in that subcommittee SJR 127 was killed four times. Because Representative Kent Williams assured pro-life Democrats that he would make sure the Public Health Subcommittee had a majority of pro-life members so that SJR 127 could get to the House floor, they were willing to vote for him. Those votes, combined with a majority of Democrats who did not want Representative Jason Mumpower, the Republican speaker nominee, in that role, were enough to make Representative Williams, Speaker Williams.

But part of what made Speaker Williams a bit more palatable to Democrats is that he had been a Republican supporter of former Speaker Naifeh and was believed by them to be more likely to be bipartisan in his committee appointments. That belief became reality, and one of the Democratic committee chairs under former Speaker Naifeh was pro-abortion Representative Joe Armstrong, who unfortunately chairs the House Health Committee, the same committee whose Public Health Subcommittee had killed SJR 127 for seven years.

But to ensure that SJR 127 would get out of the Public Health subcommittee, Speaker Williams made sure there were two pro-life Democrats on the subcommittee. Those legislators, combined with the Republicans on the subcommittee, were thought to be enough to make sure the resolution finally got to the full committee and, from there, to the House floor. (Read about the speaker election.) But things began to go awry with Chairman Armstrong left in charge.

The first attempt to foil SJR 127 was made when Chairman Armstrong, for the first time ever, decided to assign the pro-life resolution (known as HJR 0066 in the House) to the Health Facilities Subcommittee, which, of course, Speaker Williams had not made sure was majority pro-life. Apparently Chairman Armstrong reasoned that since abortions were done in buildings, the matter should be decided by the Health Facilities Subcommittee. The fact that abortions have been done in buildings every other year the resolution was assigned by him to the Public Health Subcommittee made no difference. Fortunately pro-life legislators caught the slight of hand and implored the Speaker to have Chairman Armstrong treat the resolution the way he had every time previously. So, now the resolution is back in front of the Public Health Subcommittee.

But last week a new surprise tactic was taken by Chairman Armstrong, no doubt in consultation with pro-abortion forces. This week there was talk that Chairman Armstrong was going to have a special hearing on SJR 127 and alternative constitutional proposals this Wednesday. The word was that Chairman Armstrong was doing this to allow abortion advocates a chance to bring in a hot shot attorney to berate SJR 127 and tout the importance of the pro-abortion constitutional amendment filed by Representative Henry Fincher (D-Cookeville).

Finally last Thursday the calendar for the hearing was released, and the process envisioned by Chairman Armstrong was made somewhat clear. Of course, that left pro-life legislators who don’t hobnob with constitutional law experts every day (maybe never) with precious little time to find a lawyer of national reputation who could drop everything, get prepared, and come to Tennessee by Wednesday.

So the pro-life legislators on the Public Health Subcommittee put the word out among organizations like Family Action of Tennessee and Tennessee Right to Life to go find such a person for them. And fortunately someone has been found whose qualifications to speak to constitutional issues involving abortion cannot be questioned.

It should be an interesting hearing this Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. (CDT). You can watch the proceedings by clicking on the Health Committee link found on this page.