Here's the press release from Planned Parenthood in response to Thursday's senate effort to rob Tennessee women of the right to choose.
March 7, 2006
CONTACT: Keri Adams, 615-438-6070
PRESS CONFERENCE
The War on Abortion and Women’s Health in Tennessee
Thursday, March 9th, 2006
11 States, Including Tennessee, Follow South Dakota's Attack on Women and Families
WHAT: Planned Parenthood supporters in Tennessee will join the Tennessee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Nashville Women’s Political Caucus, National Council of Jewish Women – Nashville Section, Tennessee National Organization for Women (NOW), Nashville NOW, ACLU-Tennessee, Memphis Regional Planned Parenthood, Tennessee Democratic Womens’ Political Action Committee, Tennessee Guerilla Women, Americans United for Separation of Church and State – Tennessee, and other organizations to protest legislative attacks on abortion and reproductive health care and call for increased efforts in Tennessee to help women and families prevent unintended pregnancy. All 11 states with pending outright abortion bans will be holding simultaneous visibility events on March 9th designed to remind legislators that the majority of Americans support protecting a woman’s right to choose.
WHO: Mark Huffman, VP, Education and Training, Planned Parenthood of Middle and East TN Cathy England Walsh, Executive Director, TN Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence Hedy Weinberg, President, American Civil Liberties Union –Tennessee, Holly Spann, President, Nashville Women’s Political Caucus
WHEN: 11:00 a.m., Thursday, March 9th, 2006
WHERE: Legislative Plaza, Room 31
WHY: Tennessee is now on the frontline of the abortion wars. South Dakota’s recent abortion ban is not an isolated attack on women’s rights. Tennessee is one of 11 states engaged in the battle to defend women's health care against hard-line, anti-choice, anti-family planning politicians. (AL, GA, IN, KY, MO, MS, OH, OK, SD, TN, and WV). Tennessee currently has 58 bills pending in the Legislature that deal specifically with abortion or reproductive healthcare. 43 of those 58 initiatives would take away the rights of Tennessee women. These measures are so cynical and cruel that many would even force a victim of rape or incest to bear the child of her attacker.
While Tennessee legislators are trying to make it harder for women to access abortion services, they are doing very little to help women prevent unintended pregnancy in the first place. Planned Parenthood and our coalition partners stand ready to work with legislators to increase access to birth control and achieve the common goal of fewer abortions. Birth control and accurate sex education are proven tolls that prevent unintended pregnancy – abortion bans do not. Making criminals out of pregnant women is not the solution.
Photo: by Jesse, Rally for Choice, Nashville, Summer 2005
Abortion Feminism Reproductive Rights Pro Choice Roe SJR 127 Tennessee South Dakota
