With little fanfare last week, U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Sharp refused to dismiss a lawsuit by a Vanderbilt University law professor that could invalidate the results in last year’s abortion ballot initiative.
In November’s general election, Tennessee voters passed Amendment 1 that said simply, “Nothing is this [state] Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion.”
The idea was that state law would not grant further access to abortion than what is found in federal law.
In 2000, the Tennessee Supreme Court, overturning a previous law, found that “a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy is a vital part of the right to privacy guaranteed by the Tennessee Constitution.”
The current lawsuit by Tracey George, who serves as board chairwoman of Planned Parenthood of Middle & East Tennessee and was a coordinator of the Vote No on 1 campaign, and seven other voters rests on how the votes in the ballot initiative were counted. Amendment passage required the votes of 50 percent of the people who voted in the governor’s race plus one vote. It wound up with 53 percent.