According to the latest available government statistics, more abortions are performed annually in Tennessee than in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Kentucky combined. Think of this if you dare: over 17,000 pregnancies are ended—unborn children murdered each year in our state. Comparatively speaking, Kentucky sees 4,120 abortions per year.
At the 1994 National Prayer Breakfast held each year in Washington, D.C., Mother Teresa of Calcutta spoke words that still pierce the human heart because of the truth declared. In her speech she said, “I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child—a direct killing of the innocent child—murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell the people not to kill one another?” If the words of this diminutive nun are true, Tennessee, along with New York, Illinois, and California, is the front line of this horrific war on life.
In the November 2014 election, we as citizens of Tennessee have the opportunity to radically change our culture in this arena. Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 127 will be on the ballot. SJR 127 is an amendment to the State Constitution allowing for the state legislative body to pass sensible laws regulating abortion, including such measures as a waiting period as well as informed consent laws. Those kinds of laws were in effect until the year 2000 when the Tennessee State Supreme Court ruled that a right to abortion exists in our State Constitution. In essence, if Rowe v. Wade were overturned by the United State Supreme Court tomorrow, abortion would still be protected by our State Constitution. The Court’s ruling in effect said we can’t pass abortion regulations that even the U.S. Supreme Court would uphold. The only way the decision by our Supreme Court can possibly be reversed is via an amendment to our State Constitution. People have fought for more than a decade to get this amendment before the citizens of Tennessee. It will be a massive, hard-fought, and very extensive battle if we are to see the SJR 127 win at the ballot box. The national pro-abortion crowd is expected to spend millions of dollars in an attempt to defeat this measure. We must plan, pray, and prepare now for a vote that, if passed, could be a major step toward saving thousands of babies.
For more information, I would direct you to the Family Action Counsel of Tennessee website (www.FACTn.org). Together, we can change Tennessee’s culture for life.
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