NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A federal appeals court dealt abortion opponents and state elections officials a victory Tuesday by ruling that Tennessee won’t have to recount votes on a constitutional amendment passed in 2014 that allows tougher abortion restrictions.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion Tuesday says the state’s vote counting method on Amendment 1 was reasonable and true to the meaning of the Tennessee Constitution. It also says the count didn’t infringe on the voting rights of the plaintiffs, eight abortion rights advocates who sued the state.
The order overturns an April 2016 district court that called Tennessee’s vote-counting on Amendment 1 unconstitutional and fundamentally unfair and ordered a recount, which was put on hold pending the appeal.
Amendment 1 says that nothing in the state constitution “secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion” and empowers state lawmakers to “enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion.”
Vanderbilt University Law School professor Tracey George, one of plaintiffs, had said there is a good chance the amendment would fail if the votes were recounted as ordered.