Lawmakers reconvene for summer study of heartbeat abortion bill
Pody is hoping to redefine viability
Sen. Mark Pody wants Tennessee to establish a state law that says viability begins at the moment of conception.
State senators on Monday will reexamine the so-called “heartbeat” abortion measure that failed to gain support in the Tennessee legislature earlier this year.
The measure was instead sent to a “summer study” session, where state Sen. Mark Pody, R-lebanon, hopes to push lawmakers to consider a version that goes further than a ban on abortion beginning at the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Pody said last week he hopes to amend the proposal to redefine the moment a fetus is considered viable. Instead of the well-established court rulings that defined viability as the time a fetus can survive outside a mother’s womb, Pody wants Tennessee to establish a state law that says viability begins at the moment of conception.
“Our bill is trying to do things in a different way,” he said.
“A baby is a live human being and should be entitled to any of the constitutional rights as any other person.”
The two-day meeting is expected to draw busloads of advocates on both sides of the abortion divide and includes a slate of speakers representing abortion rights and abortion opponents.
More than two dozen speakers are scheduled to address lawmakers.
The heartbeat bill failed in part because some of the state’s most prominent opponents of abortion refused to support it, including Tennessee Right to Life and each of Tennessee’s three Catholic bishops.
The anti-abortion groups cited a likely legal challenge that would prove both costly and difficult to defend in court.
“Tennessee Right to Life continues to express sincere concerns at the proposed passage of this legislation,” said Brian Harris, president.
“There is not a single state where a heartbeat bill has been upheld or enforced. Not a single child has been saved or a mother helped as a result of this legislation.”
Abortion rights supporters oppose the measure on other grounds.
“This bill is an extreme measure that could interfere with personal, private medical decisions about birth control, access to fertility treatment, management of a miscarriage and access to safe and legal abortion,” said Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and Northern Mississippi.
Both supporters and opponents of the measure have been encouraging a large turnout for the hearing.
The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, which oversees ministry operations for a network of Southern Baptist churches, has launched an “I Stand for Life” campaign to rally Baptists to attend and sign a petition to support legislation restricting abortion.
Supporters of abortion rights are expected to turn out in matching Tshirts.
The summer study is a special meeting of lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which declined to pass the bill last year saying it needed more discussion.
No measure can be voted on until after the legislature reconvenes in January.
Reach Anita Wadhwani at awadhwani@tennessean.com; 615259-8092.