Tag: Anti-abortion

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (October 23, 2014) …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Toby Sells’ cover story, “Trolley Trials”…

Without the trolleys, it’s like the heart has been ripped out of downtown Memphis. They truly were the heart, soul, and glue that held everything together. The sooner they’re back, the better off everyone will be. It’s sad to read that many businesses are suffering. What makes this really disappointing is this entire episode could’ve been avoided had competent management been in place. I do feel Ron Garrison has a good handle on the situation, and I feel confident in his leadership.

Midtown Mark

About Les Smith’s “At Large” column on MLGW …

Les is spot on. This closely parallels the city administration’s way of handling the “shortfall” in funding the pension. Let’s put it on the backs of the retirees by taking away the health coverage to make up the deficit. Cargill (a PILOT benefactor) cost the city millions in tax revenue, and now MLGW wants to put it on the backs of the customers. Another PILOT recipient that got a free ride and pulled out with no penalty or accountability. And the mayor and council are having a hard time understanding our shrinking tax base? Wake up, Memphis!

Bobcat

About Bianca Phillips’ story, “Beer Me”…

One of the measures on the upcoming ballot will allow voters to determine the availability of wine in grocery stores in municipalities throughout the county. It’s important to clarify a few points about this ballot measure.

The phrase “grocery stores” is extremely misleading. In fact, if this measure passes, wine up to 18 percent alcohol in volume (and products manufactured from wine) will become available at convenience stores, corner markets, and gas stations. In order to qualify to sell wine, an establishment needs only to have a minimum of 1,200 square feet and sell at least 20 percent food products.

Numerous studies indicate a direct link between the number of alcohol outlets and the incidence of violent crime, including domestic violence. Approving this legislation will expand availability of wine from approximately 140 retail stores to more than 600 convenience and grocery stores throughout our community.

There has been little detail from the Alcoholic Beverage Commission as to how they plan on regulating the sale of wine in so many additional stores. Expanding availability of alcohol will dramatically stress the commission’s already taxed resources, increasing the likelihood of underage sales.

Passage of this measure will eliminate local jobs, close retail stores, and move revenue to the hands of large, out-of-state businesses. Our Memphis-area retail store proprietors and store team members are deeply involved in our communities. Vote No to the wine-in-grocery-stores bill.

Josh Hammond

Memphis Area Retailers Association

About the upcoming vote on Amendment 1…

Our state constitution was purposefully designed to be very difficult to change, and with good reason. It takes a two-thirds majority of both houses of legislature to even get an initiative on the ballot, and that is after it has been voted on in two consecutive legislative sessions. Since its adoption in 1870, our constitution has only been amended nine times, yet the Republican-led legislature has placed four amendments on this year’s ballot. Why? Has our constitution been wrong for these 140-plus years? Or is it simply a power grab by those in the majority?

Amendment 1 restricts and removes rights from the constitution — something that has never been done before in the history of the state or federal constitutions. Proponents call it “returning Tennessee to a position of neutrality.” That is just a fancy way of saying they will no longer protect a woman’s right to privacy. Constitutions are meant to enumerate and preserve rights of individuals, not to give them over to whatever political party happens to be in power. They are to protect the rights of the minority against the tyranny of the majority. People’s rights should never be put on the ballot for a vote. We must be very careful not to advocate taking rights away, because one day the rights they take away may be yours. Vote No on Amendment 1.

Meryl Rice

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News News Feature

What Happens Next?

If women have no access to abortion in Tennessee, what happens next?

What happens to women, pregnant as the result of rape, who don’t want to carry the trauma inside them for nine months? What happens to women who simply can’t afford another child – financially or emotionally?

Those who back the first constitutional amendment on the November 4th ballot do not want you to consider what happens next.

If Amendment 1 passes, Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature will enact enough abortion restrictions to make Roe v. Wade meaningless.

Whether it’s mandatory waiting periods or medically unnecessary hurdles for a procedure with a lower rate of complications than a colonoscopy, draconian measures adopted in other states would surely find a home here.

“If this passes, it opens the floodgates,” said Allison Glass, state director of Healthy and Free Tennessee, which promotes reproductive rights.

The fight over Amendment 1 exposes the hypocrisy of pro-fetus, anti-child conservatives who bark for smaller, less intrusive government while maneuvering their way into women’s personal affairs.

What the legislature won’t do is abandon a foolhardy commitment to abstinence-only sex ed in public schools, find money for universal pre-K, or persuade Governor Bill Haslam to save more than 800 lives annually by accepting federal money to expand Medicaid.

Here’s what the proposed amendment says: “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or require the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother.”

You read that right. The decision to outlaw abortion even in the stomach-churning case of incest would be left in the hands of state legislators, 83 percent of whom are men.

That prospect worries Rebecca Terrell, executive director of the reproductive health center, Choices. Terrell spends a good bit of her time these days debunking “Yes on 1’s” talking points, which include the fact that 25 percent of abortions in Tennessee are performed on women who live out of state. 

In Mississippi, which has just one abortion provider, 2 percent of abortions were obtained by women who live out of state. The reason why women come to Tennessee to get an abortion is no different than the reason why children with cancer come from around the globe to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“They say it’s an abortion destination,” Terrell said. “It’s really a health-care destination.”

On Saturday, Terrell was among 200 people gathered in First Presbyterian Church’s parking lot for what was billed as a get out the vote rally, complete with a bounce house for kids and toe-tapping music. At a break in the music, “No on 1” field director Gail Tyree took to the stage and led the crowd in a call-and-response.

“All you need to know,” she yelled. “No on 1!” the crowd yelled back.

More energy, money (nearly $2 million raised so far), and national attention have been directed at the Amendment 1 battle than at any other constitutional amendment in recent history. Terrell and others are trying to be sure they stay on the right side of the line that prohibits 501(c)3s from lobbying.

A healthy roster of Christian ministers and other faith leaders, both white and black, are firmly in the “No on 1” camp.

“As people of faith, we are and should be concerned about the impact of any legislation that might limit access to basic needs for survival for people who are already at risk,” said Rev. Faye London, interfaith coordinator for SisterReach, a reproductive rights organization. “As I’ve traveled across the state, most of the clergy I’ve encountered, whether they’ve been able to say it out loud or not, feel the same way.”

London is careful not to directly advocate against Amendment 1, but is frank about the high stakes. Access to abortion, she says, is a basic need. “The ability to build the life that is going to be healthiest for you and your family is a basic need.”

A May poll by Vanderbilt University found that 71 percent of voters opposed giving the state legislature authority to regulate abortions.

A No vote on Amendment 1 gives women facing an unintended pregnancy, not legislators, the right to decide what happens next.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter From the Editor: DOMA

Well, now, there’s two, there’s two trains running
Well, they ain’t never, no, going my way
Well, now, one run at midnight and the other one
Running just ’fore day …
— Muddy Waters, “Still a Fool”

It doesn’t take a bluesman to see that there are two trains running in this country these days. One is headed inexorably to the future, into daylight; the other — the midnight train — is straining to return to the darkness of the past. Passengers on the morning train are a mix of races, ages, creeds, sexual identities. The midnight train is mostly filled with old white people.
Both trains pulled into SCOTUS Station last week, and both picked up a new freight car. The morning train got a fresh load of freedom for gay Americans — the overturning of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and the repealing of California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in that state. Within 24 hours of the ruling, gays began getting married in California and applying for spousal benefits.

The midnight train’s new car contained the overturning of a critical portion of the 1960s-era Voting Rights Act — the part where Southern states with a long history of restrictive voting laws designed to favor white people and discourage black people were required to have any proposed new voting regulations reviewed by the Justice Department. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that this sort of supervision is no longer necessary because the South has changed. Within 24 hours of the ruling, several Southern states announced plans for imposing new voting restrictions. Some change. Full speed backward.

Yes, I know, the train metaphor is simplistic, but it’s not difficult to see the tectonic generational, demographic, and gender-attitude shifts going on in this country, and the Supreme Court’s latest bipolar rulings reflect this reality.

On one hand, Republican-controlled states are passing radically more restrictive abortion legislation, strong anti-gay marriage laws, ridiculous NRA-backed gun bills, and ill-fated anti-immigration measures. Nationally, the right-wing Republicans in Congress are doing their best to derail immigration reform.

On the other hand, progressive-dominated states are eliminating marijuana laws, passing gay rights legislation, and keeping abortion safe and legal. Nationally, Democrats in Congress are working toward inevitable — and necessary — immigration reform.

Like it or not, the United States is getting more diverse and more open-minded. The coming generations of Americans will not be dominated by white males, and neither will the country. Unless the Republican Party figures this out soon, their midnight train is headed to oblivion.

Bruce VanWyngarden
brucev@memphisflyer.com