Tag: abortion

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Local Abortion Provider: ‘Phone Ringing off Hook,’ Staff Short, But Services Continue

CREDIT: Facebook/CHOICES

Facebook/CHOICES

CHOICES’ main clinic on Poplar

With a smaller staff and a slightly different set operating procedures, CHOICES, one of two clinics in the city that performs abortions, is still open and providing services.


Katy Leopard, assistant director of CHOICES, said the clinic’s call volume has been up, some staff members are working from home, and the clinic has had to decrease the number of patients it sees, but services will continue. CHOICES’ main focus, she said, has been to provide the essential services patients need, while ensuring that staff and patients remain safe and healthy.

“What we do healthcare-wise is definitely under the umbrella of essential healthcare,” Leopard said. “So, we are definitely open and providing services. Our phones are ringing off the hook and people may have a little trouble getting in touch with us, but we are working very hard to get those calls answered and schedule appointments because we know how important what we provide is to our patients.”

Leopard said in addition to the increased call volume, there has been an increase in the number of patients who actually show for their appointments. Ordinarily, she said the show rate for appointments is between 50 and 60 percent, but now, it is up to about 80 percent.

“People are just feeling very anxious and wanting to take care of these things very quickly.

They are thinking ‘oh my god, if I’m going to do it I better do it now before CHOICES has to close,’” she said. “And while I don’t think that’s in our future and I think we will be able to stay open, we are certainly doing our very best.”

Over the past couple of weeks, Leopard said CHOICES also saw an influx of patients from Texas and other states, where abortions were banned and considered a nonessential medical service.

“It was this horrible moment where — for while the clinics in Texas were all closed, and Louisiana, and Ohio — we were seeing people from everywhere,” Leopard said.

Monday, federal judges temporarily overturned the ban in Texas, Ohio, and Alabama, and Leopard said that will “greatly alleviate some pressure.”

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Leopard said CHOICES immediately opted to allow all non-essential staff members to work from home, as well as those with underlying health conditions that might be more susceptible to contracting the virus.

CHOICES also implemented unlimited paid sick leave for all employees because “the last thing we wanted was for our employees to come in if they aren’t feeling well so they could get paid.”

Down a few staff members, Leopard said initially CHOICES decided to only see abortion patients for the time being, while pushing other wellness appointments until April.

“But after it began to look like this is going to go on for a month or so, we realized that birth control and things like that are essential for the community,” Leopard said. “People need their IUDs removed or they need their prescriptions filled and all the other things that we do.”

Leopard said CHOICES has begun to look for ways to provide the services it can, like renewing prescriptions, via telemedicine.

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Typically, abortion patients are required to come in for a patient education session before scheduling an abortion, but Leopard said this process now takes place over the phone.

Out of caution, patients are also screened over the phone and asked about contact with anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 or has had symptoms prior to their appointment. Patients are again screened the day of their appointment before they come into the clinic. Leopard said this week CHOICES will begin checking the temperature of everyone who comes into the building.

Other precautionary steps CHOICES has taken include reorganizing its waiting rooms so that patients sit six feet apart and frequently sanitizing surfaces and equipment in the clinic. Additionally, to limit the number of people in the clinic’s waiting room and potential exposure, CHOICES has temporarily stopped allowing patients to bring a guest with them, unless they are a minor.

“What we provide is critical and essential healthcare to people in this community and we will do everything we can to stay open,” Leopard said. “So, we’re open, seeing patients, and scheduling appointments. But at the same time we are being very, very cognizant and careful to limit exposure to our patients and staff. The thing that could be a real problem for us is if one of our clinicians gets sick. So, we are doing what we can to prevent that.”

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Leopard said CHOICES is doing all that they can to “help the community access the tools they need to control their reproductive lives and healthy sexual lives.”

To that end CHOICES sponsored a drive-thru emergency contraception give-away last weekend in its parking lot.

“We are very aware that sex is something people do and quarantine isn’t going to stop that,” she said. “It’s part of our experience as humans. We also give them away at our front desk. So people can come in very quickly and get some if they have an oops moment.”

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Leopard said without a doubt, CHOICES needs to remain open, as its services are essential for its patients.

“When I talk to patients about how they would be impacted without the services we provide, it’s very clear that what we do is essential,” Leopard said. “I mean my dry-cleaners and auto mechanic are still open. So, to argue that not being able to control whether or not you continue with a pregnancy that can ripple through your entire life in so many ways is not essential is not even an argument. All you have to do is talk to our patients to understand why what we do is essential in their lives.”

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Bill to ‘Protect Life of Unborn’ Advances in Senate


The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced an anti-abortion bill Tuesday pushed by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and opposed by many.

Sen. Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol), one of the bill’s sponsors, said the legislation (SB 2196) is “one of the nation’s strongest opportunities to protect the life of the unborn.”

He also added that “nothing in the bill criminalizes a pregnant woman nor does this bill mandate measures that would endanger the life or health of a pregnant woman.”

The meat of the legislation comes in an amendment, which Lang Wiseman, deputy to the governor and chief counsel for the governor’s office, explained to the committee.

In his testimony, he outlined the four main provisions of the bill’s amendment, which include:

• Eliminating the requirement that the Department of Children’s Services provide court advocates to minors seeking to receive an abortion without parental consent

• Requiring an ultrasound as a part of the informed consent process

• Prohibiting discriminatory abortions based on sex, race, or disability

• Prohibiting abortion at several gestational milestones from the time there is a fetal heartbeat through 24 weeks

Wiseman said the last provision allows Tennessee to “play both the long game and the short game.”

“This approach would allow us test the limits of current Supreme Court precedent, while also allowing us to achieve, in one instance, the most protective provisions under state law that a court would approve.”

Violating any of the provisions would be a Class C felony, Wiseman said. 

Aaron Snodderly, executive director of the Tennessee Independent Baptists for Religious Freedom, spoke in support of the bill, encouraging the committee to “protect the innocent lives of babies that have a heartbeat in their mother’s wombs.”

“To those who are on the other side of the aisle, the more liberal side of the aisle, I believe you’re at a crossroads,” Snodderly said. “If this is a life, then that means you are supporting murder. That means you’re not trying to plan your parenthood. You’re supporting planning the murder of an innocent baby.”

Ashley Coffield, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, testified before the committee, calling the bill a “dangerous package of legislation” and “one of the most extreme attacks on reproductive healthcare.”

“The bill includes additional medically unnecessary restrictions designed to shame and judge people seeking abortions and it criminalizes doctors for treating their patients,” Coffield said. “The bill goes way too far, inserting government into our private lives.”

Sen. Janice Bowling asked “shouldn’t the right to life preempt the right to privacy?”

“These are personal decisions that should be left to individuals to make based on their own values and healthcare,” Coffield said in response.

Coffield added that at six weeks, most women don’t know they are pregnant: “This bill could take away a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions before she knows she even has a decision to make.”

Sen. Sara Kyle (D-Memphis) opposed the bill, telling the committee that it does not consider the overall healthcare of pregnant women

“One again we find ourselves discussing an issue that’s already been decided by the Supreme Court,” Kyle said. “It’s my opinion that the state legislature has no business intruding on personal, moral decisions. If this body was genuinely interested in reducing unwanted pregnancies and supporting children, let’s start by making sure every family has access to affordable health care and contraception, which again this bill did not address.”

Voting 7-2, the committee advanced the bill to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation. Sens. Kyle and Katrina Robinson (D-Memphis) were the only two voting no.

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Lawmakers to Consider Slew of Anti-Abortion Bills Tuesday

Pro-choice advocates rally to keep abortion legal

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee wants to make it a Class C felony to perform an abortion in the state. State lawmakers will consider this and three other pieces of anti-abortion legislation Tuesday.

The governor’s proposal is an amendment to SB 2196. That bill is intended to delay the trial of a physician accused of performing a “partial-birth” abortion in order for the state medical board to determine if the abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother.

The amendment to the bill has not yet been posted to the Tennessee General Assembly website, but was obtained Friday by Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi (PPTNM).

Ashley Coffield, CEO of PPTNM, said the governor is proposing “one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country.”

“This is nothing short of a total assault on women,” Coffield said. “This is a fight for our lives, and we will put everything we have into defeating this legislation.”

The 31-page amendment repeatedly states that Tennessee “has a legitimate, substantial, and compelling interest in protecting the rights of all human beings, including the fundamental and absolute right of unborn human beings to life, liberty, and all rights protected by the (14th) and (9th) Amendments.”


Specifically, the legislation would make it unlawful to perform an abortion on a woman where a fetal heartbeat is detected, which usually occurs around the sixth week of pregnancy. The bill also includes bans at several stages throughout the pregnancy from six weeks to 24 weeks if the heartbeat provision is struck down in court.

Violation of the law for physicians would result in a Class C Felony, which according to Tennessee Code Annotated, could result in a three-to-five-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $10,000. The law would not punish women who seek abortions. 

“Politicians are putting the health and lives of Tennessee women at risk,” Coffield said. “These bans on safe, legal abortion will have real costs — expensive legal costs and human costs for the women and families who need reproductive health care. Banning abortion does not eliminate abortion. It makes it illegal and unsafe.”

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The legislation would also ban abortions based on the race, sex, or potential disability of the child. The bill also includes a provision that would require physicians to show women their ultrasound, give a description of the fetus, and play the fetal heartbeat before a women can choose to have an abortion.

“The unique nature of abortion and its potential physical and mental health risks, as well as the ultimate result of the death of an unborn child, necessitates that this state ensure every woman considering an abortion is provided with adequate comprehensive information before deciding to obtain an abortion,” reads the amendment.

The Tennessee Senate Judiciary committee is slated to discuss this legislation and three other pieces of anti-abortion legislation Tuesday, March 3rd beginning at 3 p.m.

The committee will also discuss SB1236, which like the aforementioned legislation, prohibits abortion from the time a fetal heartbeat is detected, unless there is a medical emergency warranting the abortion. It will also hear SB1780, referred to as the Rule of Life Act. This act essentially seeks to group the rights of unborn children under the 9th Amendment, and “recognize the balance of priorities between the life of unborn persons and abortion set forth in the State’s Constitution.”

The act states that life begins at conception at the time the egg is fertilized and that a pregnancy is viable at the time a heartbeat can be detected.

Also on Tuesday at 9 a.m., in the the House Health committee, legislators will discuss HB 2568, which would require clinics that performed more than 50 abortions in the past year to inform patients that chemical abortion is reversible after the first dose of the two-dose treatment.

A PPTNM petition to lawmakers calls this bill dangerous and worries it will force physicians to provide patients with “medically inaccurate, misleading” information that could harm a patient’s health.

“Lawmakers like you should focus on expanding healthcare access in the state, not denying it,” the petition reads. “Women’s health and lives should not be used as political pawns for anti-choice politicians to cater to anti-choice interest groups. Given Tennessee’s high rates of infant mortality, unintended pregnancy and teen births, it is time to focus on legislation that would increase access to preventive care, not ban access to critical healthcare.”


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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Tribes

I long ago stopped arguing about abortion — or even discussing it — with folks who disagree with me. That’s because you can’t have a debate unless you first agree upon what you’re debating about. If one side thinks what you’re discussing is the murder of babies and the other side thinks you’re discussing a woman’s right to do what she wants with her own body, there’s literally nothing to debate. There is no common ground for discussion.

Nobody is going to get themselves into a debate about whether we should murder babies because nobody thinks they’re in favor of murdering babies. And, conversely, if you think a woman’s right to control her body doesn’t include deciding on whether or not to have children, well, there’s no room for compromise there, either. Sure, you can argue about when a baby is a baby, but it never goes anywhere. It’s an intractable issue, each side set in its own corner.

A variation of this dilemma lies at the core of our current national malaise. We can’t come to a political consensus about anything because we are coming at our issues with completely different “facts.” Those who support the president and those who think he should be impeached are armed with contradictory information about who the president is, what the president has done, and whether his current behavior represents a grave danger to our democracy or a return to American greatness.

Those of us on the progressive side of the spectrum see this president as an unhinged, narcissistic man-child, a Russian puppet whose daily prevarications are obvious to anyone paying attention. His supporters see the president as a no-nonsense tough guy who’s “draining the swamp” and telling it like it is — a patriotic Christian who’s not even taking a salary. The opposing realities extend to our opinions of the First Lady, our political parties, the Mueller Report, climate change, former President Obama, and of course, the necessity of impeachment.

Trump’s evangelical followers proclaim that he is an “imperfect vessel” sent by God to save us all. Trump’s opponents point out his bribery payments to a porn star to keep quiet about a sexual episode that happened while the now-First Lady was pregnant. There’s nothing to debate between those competing views. Facts are no longer facts. “Truth” has become a function of ideology, and ideology is a byproduct of what our brains consume. We are tribes now, no longer the “United” States.

And that’s a real problem because the United States was created by optimists and idealists. The Founding Fathers believed in individual human worth and dignity. They trusted that the majority of Americans would do the right thing — that, over time, they would make the kind of decisions that would keep our nascent democracy intact — and our leaders on the straight and narrow.

For the most part, it has worked. Crooked and venal elected officials have come and gone throughout our history — on the local, state, and national level. Usually, they have been caught and forced out of office, sooner or later, by the combined forces of a free press, an engaged and informed electorate, and a judicial system that administers justice without fear or favor.

Now, our free press is corrupted and fragmented, leading to an engaged but often misinformed electorate. And the judicial system has been manipulated and politicized — from the Supreme Court and the Attorney General on down — to a degree unseen in the lifetime of our republic.

So, what do we do? How do we correct the course of a country that’s strayed so far from its bedrock principles? The first step is acceptance of the problem: The divisions between our warring political tribes are embedded and not going away any time soon.

The next step is overcoming despair and negativity and replacing it with action. Speak your truth and work to make it reality.

Take solace and hope from the fact that millions of Americans are working for good: volunteering in the immigrant community, helping the homeless and hungry, pushing for equal rights for all, fighting against racism and gender bias, organizing and registering voters, standing up for what they believe. Thanks to our divisions, the country is seeing a surge of activism and a commitment to making things better. Rather than focusing on trying to win “debates” that are ill-defined, divisive, and unwinnable, we need to keep our eyes on the prize and work for what is possible. The American experiment isn’t dead. At least, not yet.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

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Group Calls Committee’s Interruption of CEO’s Testimony ‘Disrespectful,’ ‘Dismissive’

CREDIT: Matt Anderson

Cherisse Scott

Head of a Memphis organization that works for reproductive justice was cut short during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday as she spoke against legislation that would essentially ban abortion in Tennessee. 

Cherisse Scott, founder and CEO of SisterReach, an organization meant to help women and girls of color, women living in low-income and rural areas, and the LBGTQ community obtain reproductive justice, was cut off five minutes into what was meant to be a 10-minute testimony by chairman of the committee Senator Mike Bell (R-Riceville).

“Reproductive justice seeks to liberate and emancipate vulnerable populations from all forums of reproductive and sexual oppression,” Scott said early in her testimony. “It challenges us to expand our analysis beyond abortion to be inclusive of the myriad of other issues that preclude women and people that give birth from achieving reproductive and sexual autonomy.”

Scott called the legislation in question an “outright and intentional abandonment by the Tennessee state legislator of these vulnerable people.”

She said the legislation would be the “final straw in a political pattern of vile, racist, un-American, and un-Christian legislation.”

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Scott continued citing “harmful” policy making that intersects with abortion rights. She noted the need for sexual education in schools, access to health care, education reform, and more behavioral and mental health care.

She said the legislators have “created an environment that leads Tennesseans to need more abortions, under-care or neglect their children, regardless of whether or not they want to or able to parent.

“And if all this isn’t heartbreaking enough, you weild your political power in Jesus’ name,” Scott said. “Many of you who claim to be conservative Christians have weaponized the word of God to forward your political agendas and maintain power and control over the most vulnerable Tennesseans. You manipulated Biblical scripture to align with your colonialism and supremacist ideologies, instead of showing mercy.”

Matt Anderson

Cherisse Scott continues to speak as she is approached by the sergeant-in-arms

This is when Bell interrupted Scott: “That’s enough. Your time is up.”

Scott continued to speak though, prompting Bell to call for the sergeant-in-arms to escort Scott from the room.

“I have sat here and I have watched you all to allow people to talk and talk, but you won’t allow me to talk as a Christian because I disagree with the way that you believe?” Scott said, noting that she hadn’t gone over her allotted 10 minutes.

Bell asked for Scott’s microphone to be turned off, as she continued to speak, and then he called for a five-minute recess, and left the room.

“Either you care about people’s bodies or you do not,” Scott told the committee. “Either you are here to save my life or you are not. Stop being an impostor of God’s word and do your jobs.”

Scott’s words garnered applause and cheers from members of the audience. Watch Scott’s interrupted testimony here or read the entire testimony here.

Of the 21 witnesses that spoke before the committee, Scott was the only one prohibited from completing her testimony. She was also the only African-American witness, and one of nine women.

SisterReach called the committee’s actions a “bold declaration of the staunch, disrespectful, and dismissive attitude toward women.” 

Many watching the hearings agreed and took it to Twitter.

Group Calls Committee’s Interruption of CEO’s Testimony ‘Disrespectful,’ ‘Dismissive’ (4)

Group Calls Committee’s Interruption of CEO’s Testimony ‘Disrespectful,’ ‘Dismissive’

Group Calls Committee’s Interruption of CEO’s Testimony ‘Disrespectful,’ ‘Dismissive’ (5)

Group Calls Committee’s Interruption of CEO’s Testimony ‘Disrespectful,’ ‘Dismissive’ (2)

Group Calls Committee’s Interruption of CEO’s Testimony ‘Disrespectful,’ ‘Dismissive’ (6)

Group Calls Committee’s Interruption of CEO’s Testimony ‘Disrespectful,’ ‘Dismissive’ (7)

Group Calls Committee’s Interruption of CEO’s Testimony ‘Disrespectful,’ ‘Dismissive’ (8)

The legislation up for discussion, sponsored by Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) seeks to redefine viability and outlaw abortion at the moment of conception, or when a woman finds out she is pregnant.

Others who testified against the legislation include Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. Weinberg called the arguments made in support of the legislation “certainly creative,” but “irrational.”

“Abortion restrictions disproportionally harm women in rural areas and women with limited incomes,” Weinberg said. “Forcing a woman to carry to term increases existing hardships. It’s unconstitutional.”

If the bill is passed, Weinberg said the ACLU will sue and “We will win.”

Group Calls Committee’s Interruption of CEO’s Testimony ‘Disrespectful,’ ‘Dismissive’ (3)

Wrapping up the two-day hearing, Pody admitted that the issue is “very, very contentious,” but also “extremely important.”

Pody also noted that the bill isn’t “necessarily a heartbeat bill” and that no other state is “hearing something like this.”

“I think it’s going to boil down to this: When does life begin?” Pody said. “And who’s going to decide? So far it’s been decided by the Supreme Court, but I believe at one point everybody thought the world was flat. I believe at one point, people of color didn’t have the same rights,

“I believe at one point, women didn’t have the same rights. As we grow as a society, we want to make sure everybody’s protected. If there’s life in the womb and that life is human, I believe that that life deserves protection as well.”

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Tennessee Lawmakers Plan Hearings on Six-Week Abortion Ban Next Week

CREDIT: Maya Smith

Maya Smith

Ashley Coffield speaks at a Thursday press conference

State lawmakers are slated to hold hearings next week on legislation that would ban abortions at six weeks in Tennessee.

Last spring, the Tennessee General Assembly came close to passing similar legislation — the Heartbeat Bill, which would have blocked abortions after a heartbeat is detected — but it stalled in the Senate.

Facebook/Mark Pody

Sen. Mark Pody (R-Lebanon)

Now, Sen. Mark Pody (R-Lebanon), one of the co-sponsors of last year’s bill is pushing to bring back the Heartbeat Bill. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a two-day hearing on Monday and Tuesday of next week to discuss the legislation.

Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi (PPTNM), said at a Thursday press conference that the six-week ban is “unpopular, dangerous for Tennessee women, and it’s unconstitutional.” Coffield said PPTNM is urging the Senate committee to drop the legislation, as abortion is a “critical component of women’s reproductive health care.”

“A six-week abortion ban goes too far, inserting government in personal private lives,” Coffield said. “The bill is intended to ban all abortion in our state. It’s important that abortion remain a safe and legal option for women to consider when and if she needs it.”

Banning abortions threatens the “autonomy and individual freedom of people in Tennessee,” Coffield added.

“The truth is, banning abortion does not eliminate abortion,” Coffield said. “It just makes it less safe, and it puts pregnant women and their families at risk.”

She also noted that in other states that have passed six-week bans, including Kentucky, Mississippi, Iowa, North Dakota, and Ohio, the court has “easily blocked these bans,” on the basis that it is unconstitutional for states to prohibit a woman from choosing abortion before viability.

As set by Roe v. Wade, viability occurs in the 24th week of pregnancy.

“If passed in Tennessee, the six-week abortion ban will be challenged in court,” Coffield said. “Just like every other state that’s passed similar laws, we would be setting Tennessee up for an expensive lawsuit that wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money.”

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President of the Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT), David Fowler, helped draft the new version of the bill to be discussed next week.

On this week’s episode of the FACT Report, a one-minute commentary featured on conservative radio stations in the state, Fowler said under the precedent of Roe v. Wade the heartbeat bill is “clearly” unconstitutional. But, he said “Roe’s constitutional reasoning has been sharply criticized from the beginning by liberal and conservative lawyers.”

“Surprisingly, in 46 years, no state has passed a bill that directly attacks Roe’s foundations,” Fowler said. “For 46 years, the Court has not been forced to re-examine Roe’s reasoning.

“So, the real question these senators must answer is whether it’s time to stop cowering before the U.S. Supreme Court by attacking Roe in roundabout ways and pass a bill that forces the issue,”  Fowler continued. “Roe seems like a giant to overcome, but God has used His people to slay giants before. It’s time we take on the giant.”

Coffield said PPTNM is urging Tennesseans to come to the hearing in Nashville next week to “make their voices heard.”

“These hearings are the most important days of action this whole summer,” a post on PPTNM’s Facebook page reads. “It is imperative that we show our elected officials that Tennesseans do not support a ban on abortion. With your presence, we will make our voices heard.”

PPTNM is offering free travel to Nashville from Memphis by bus on Monday. Contact Tory at tmills@pptnm.org for details. For those who want to spend the night, the group is also assisting with lodging. Contact Julie at jedwards@pptnm.org for more information.

After the hearing on Tuesday, Coffield said there will be a “people’s hearing” to give the public a chance to voice their opinions. She said speakers will include physicians, attorneys, and women who’ve had abortions.

“It’ll really be centered around the experience of women who have had abortions,” Coffield said. “Those people will not be allowed to speak during the hearings. So those are the people we need to hear from.”

Read the full amended version of the legislation below.

[pdf-1]

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Pro-Choice Advocates Rally to ‘Stop the Ban’

CREDIT: Maya Smith

Maya Smith

About 40 people rallied near City Hall, Tuesday, against the recent abortion bans that have been passed in other states.

Chanting “Stop the ban,” participants held pink signs reading “Protect safe, legal abortions.”

Tuesday’s effort was spearheaded by the Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood, in collaboration with Indivisible Memphis, Choices, and other pro-choice advocacy organizations.

Ashley Coffield, president of Planned Parenthood for the Greater Memphis Region said that 73 percent of Americans oppose banning abortion, and “we’re out here today to raise up their voices and tell the nation that we won’t stand for it.”

“In Tennessee we have Planned Parenthood and other organizations that offer abortion, and that’s a great thing,” Coffield said. “But we are under attack from our legislature right now. It’s worse than it’s ever been.”

Sixteen states passed legislation this year either placing greater restrictions on abortion or effectively banning the procedure completely.

Coffield said the Tennessee legislature was close to passing an outright abortion ban this year, but that measure failed in the state Senate. That legislation is slated to be discussed during the legislation’s summer session.

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Tennessee did, however, pass a law that would criminalize abortion in Tennessee if the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is overturned. That law, the Human Life Protection Act, would ban abortions except “when an abortion is necessary to prevent death” or “substantial and irreversible impairment of major bodily function.”

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, the law would make it a felony offense for doctors to perform abortions. Under the law, women seeking abortions would not be prosecuted.      

“The fight is far from over in Tennessee,” Coffield said. “Our rights are at risk like they’ve never been before and this is a coordinated attack nationwide to get a case to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.”

Coffield said abortion is basic health care for women and making abortion illegal won’t stop abortions: “Abortion will just be unsafe and women will die.”

Currently, in Tennessee abortion is legal throughout the first 20 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy. However, the law places restrictions and regulations on clinics who offer abortion and women seeking the procedure, according to Holly Calvasina, director of development and communications for Choices.

One of those regulations is the 48-hour waiting period, Calvasina said. Women seeking an abortion must a woman to see a physician on two different occasions. According to the law, this is to ”reduce coerced abortions and to allow time to carefully consider the information and resources provided by informed consent provisions.”

Calvasina said this makes abortions more expensive, because women must pay for two doctor’s visits.

Diane Duke, executive director of Friends for Life, was also at the rally. She said that abortion is a woman’s right.

“Women are able to make their own decision about the timing and the size of their families,” Duke said. “We are women. We are the ultimate authority and definitive authority of our own body. We know if abortions are illegal, women will die.”

Duke also noted that “because of white privilege, our brown and black sisters will disproportionately bear the burden of an abortion ban.”

“This will further reinforce the institutional racism that is so predominant here in the South,” Duke said.

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Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer, who sits on the Planned Parenthood board here, was also at the rally, speaking against abortion bans.


“It was more important for me to be here with you on the ground to say ‘this won’t fly for us’” Sawyer said. “I know personally what it means to be able to make decisions about your body. No one should be able to tell anyone what they can do what their life and their future.

“When we are talking about stopping the ban, it is important that we show up in Memphis because if you don’t think Tennessee is next, you’re sleeping.”

Tuesday’s rally here was one of more than 400 happening across the country, urging for an end to abortion bans.


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Forum Aims to Stop Abortion-Ban Bill

CREDIT: Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi

Pro-choice advocates recently donned gowns in the gallery of the Tennessee Senate chamber. On those gowns were written ways women sought abortions before Roe V. Wade, ways such as ‘knitting needles.’

A forum aimed at stopping the passage of abortion ban legislation in Nashville is slated for Tuesday evening.

State lawmakers are now considering a bill that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. House Bill 77 requires health care officials to record the presence or absence of a fetal heartbeat in a woman’s medical record and require results of the tests be offered to the to the woman.

[pdf-1]
Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi (PPTNM) says the plan would “criminalize abortion and set back reproductive rights a generation.” For that, the group is hosting a forum to join “faith leaders and community advocates for a rapid response forum to stop the ban on abortion.

“What happens in Nashville can hurt Memphis, and this radical ban on abortion services is no exception,” said Ashley Coffield, CEO of the Memphis-based PPTNM. “It’s time for us to stand up and be counted and let our lawmakers know we won’t stand for this assault on our health care.”
[pullquote-1] Coffield will be joined in the forum with Norma Lester, a nurse who will share her stories of caring for pregnant women before Roe v. Wade, and the Revs. Roz Nichols and Earle Fisher.

The Memphis Rapid Response Forum to stop the ban will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. Tuesday, April 2nd, at Freedom’s Chapel Christian Church Fellowship Hall (961 Getwell Road).

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Despite Competing Partisan Claims, the 2015 Legislative Session Was Neither a Grand Success nor a Total Flop

CREDIT: JB

JB

GOP Leaders: (l to r) House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, House speaker Beth Harwell, Governor Bill Haslam, Senator Speaker/Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris

NASHVILLE — Two sets of post-mortems on the 2015 session of the Tennessee General Assembly were held Thursday morning in the state capital — one by Governor Bill Haslam and the Republican leadership, another by the leadership of the Democratic legislative minority.

Haslam, flanked by House and Senate Speakers Beth Harwell and Ron Ramsey and by House and Senate majority leaders Gerald McCormick and Mark Norris, all sitting at a table in the old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol, opened up this way:

“The primary constitutional obligation of the General Assembly and the Governor is to present a budget that balances. This actually was an extraordinary year; not only did we do that, but if you think about it, the hardest time to govern is when you actually have extra money.” An A grade, all things considered.

Half an hour later, over in the Conference Room 31 of Legislative Plaza, it was the turn of House minority leader Craig Fitzhugh, standing primus inter pares among some 18 of his party members from both chambers (the total number of Democrats in both is 30, out of a total of 132).

Said Fitzhugh, by way of starting up: “We legislated quickly, and we passed a budget. That’s about it.” Inasmuch as the veteran Leader from Ripley was among the many in both parties and both chambers who had felt rushed by the session’s hyped-up pace and among the few who could not bring themselves to vote for the budget, that was a failing grade.

In fact, both Haslam and Fitzhugh were exaggerating.

The Governor actually made the claim that “all of what you would call Governor’s bills were passed,” when his most important initiative of all, his Insure Tennessee Medicaid-expansion plan, was blocked in both the special session that began the legislative year and in the regular session.

JB

Democratic Leaders: with House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh at podium; Others include House Caucus Leader Mike Stewart and Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris.

And, while Fitzhugh made a point of naming the failures of Insure Tennessee and of a late tax-relief bill to benefit veterans as reasons for his displeasure, it was also true that several measures opposed by Democrats were blocked as well, and by a bipartisan coalition. Among those were a bill to allow de-annexation of rebellious communities from cities and, for the third or fourth year in a row, a bill allowing for a modest school-voucher start-up.

True, a GOP-backed bill to strike down local options on banning guns in parks passed both chambers, but Haslam has made clear his disagreement with the bill and said on Wednesday that he would decide within a week — maybe as soon as Friday — whether to veto it.

UPDATE: To the surprise of most (and the acute dismay of many) the Governor signed the latest guns-in-parks bill on Friday, abolishing thereby the freedom-of-action of cities and other local jurisdictions regarding firearms in their park areas.

There was actual bipartisan concord on several matters — including virtual unanimity in passage of a home-grown educational standards bill to replace Common Core that was so similar in nature to the much-abused original as to be its fraternal twin.

And even the late failure in the House (on Wednesday) of a bill to permit in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants was not due to partisan disagreement — though a GOP right-winger, Rep. Matthew Hill (R-Jonesborough) may have sullied it for some Republicans by comparing it to President Obama’s immigration directives. The real problem may have been the absence of two Democratic supporters from the vote, both for work-related reasons.

House Democratic caucus leader Mike Stewart (D-Nashville) did what he could Thursday to deflect possible recriminations against the two, Bo Mitchell and Darren Jernigan, both from Davidson County, by saying, “This is a citizen legislature. Absences are going to happen.” The fact remains that the bill fell one vote short of the 50 needed for passage.

Stewart was less forgiving in the case of Insure Tennessee’s failure, clearly brought about by the failure of the Governor’s own Republican Party (with some exceptions) to support it. An “extraordinary failure,” the Democratic caucus leader called it, and, indeed, even as Haslam vowed at the GOP availability to continue supporting it as “the right thing to do,” Lt. Governor/Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, sitting to the Governor’s immediate left, opted out loud for the alternative of a two-year scenario involving election of a Republican president in 2016 and conversion of Medicaid funds into pure block grants.

The Democrats, for their part, vowed to renew their support for Insure Tennessee. Fitzhugh announced that the combined party caucuses would be sending Haslam a letter before the week ended beseeching him to call another special session to deal with the measure. It’s fair to say that’s pretty unlikely, and the fact that next year is an election year decreases the likelihood of action in the 2016 session as well, especially given the scenario spelled out by Ramsey.

The Governor had expressed pride in getting safely through two “contentious” matters in the session just concluded. One was the Common Core matter, and that could be stacked up with other education-related successes of the Haslam agenda, including the roughly $170 million in “new money” appropriated for K-12 education and backing for higher education initiatives as well, including Drive for 55 and Tennessee Promise, both aimed at raising the level of adult post-secondary education.

Haslam was on thinner ice in expressing satisfaction in how the legislature had skirted (to his mind) major controversy in limiting anti-abortion legislation to the imposition of a 48-hour waiting period. The Democrats made whoopee on that matter, regarding which Planned Parenthood and various organized women’s groups remain outraged. “Their mission is to change the way women live. They are taking their rights away,” Rep. Sherry Jones (D-Nashville) maintained.

Still, a fair assessment of the just-concluded session from a neutral observer might be: Could have been worse; surely could have been better. Some of the outright wack stuff, like the attempt to make the Bible an official state book, was beaten down by bipartisan action, and there was intermittent harmony on other issues as well.

One such was the hectic pace of the legislature’s increasingly abbreviated sessions — an innovation that, quite obviously, has been driven by Ramsey, who has set mid-April adjournment deadlines for a body that in recent years had continued its deliberations well into summer.

At the Republican leadership availability in the old Supreme Court chamber, Ramsey had expressed pride in what he called cost-conscious “efficiency” gained from the sped-up pace and claimed, “We didn’t even feel rushed.” But, after a brief pause, in which he must have noticed either slight murmurs or rolled eyes out there among his auditors, he added, “OK, we were rushed.”

Earlier Thursday morning, a bipartisan group of legislators having breakfast at the Red Roof Inn, a modestly priced alternative to the state capital’s more expensive hostelries, sat together, grumbling about what they saw as a much too frantic pace, which one or two of them attributed to Ramsey’s need to get about his auctioneering and real estate businesses as early as possible in the spring.

In any case, these legislators agreed that key bills were being overlooked in the undue haste and some, like the in-state tuition bill which they all happened to support, had fallen victim to it. If there is a true bipartisan consensus developing on any one matter, this matter would seem to be it.

In any case, here it is, still April, and the General Assembly is over and out.

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Fly on the Wall

Fluffy Wonder

Pray for CA columnist Wendi Thomas. She’s been having a hard time lately and will no doubt benefit from divine guidance as she faces many difficult decisions in the days ahead. Her Sunday column, “Serve Me Well, Oh Fluffy Wonder,” was a brave confession:

“Right there — in that stuffy space between who you are and who you’re expected to be — is where life can go horribly awry,” she wrote. “A man who knows he’s gay but marries a woman anyway. A college freshman who has an abortion because she cannot bear to disappoint her parents. A wife who stays with the man who beats her, because the fear of being alone hurts more than the fists sting. In ways big and small, many of us are unable to be ourselves because we have convinced ourselves we should be otherwise.”

So true. But what caused Wendi to identify with self-loathing gays, knocked-up teenagers, and battered wives? She had to buy a new sofa.

“My best friend walked into the living room and declared rather rudely, ‘Girl, you need a new couch,’ Wendi courageously explained, adding that her mother had offered “more than once” to pay for an interior designer.

Trapped between socioeconomic pressure and family expectations, Wendi’s dilemma was exactly like battered spouses living in fear for their lives or the plight of an unwed, uninsured teen.

“Not unlike the candor of an AA meeting, I had to confess to my sponsor (read: interior designer) who I really am,” Wendi concluded. “My name is Wendi, and I enjoy long naps on my sofa, as does my Rottweiler. I read on my sofa, write there, practically live there. I cannot promise not to drool on the upholstery during a siesta. I will not vow to eat only at the dinner table.”

It’s special that Wendi trusts her readers enough to turn her column into a personal ad, but this sounds oddly reminiscent of a fluffy fetish. That is what this was about? Right?