NASHVILLE — The abortion debate made a dramatic entrance Tuesday during the Tennessee General Assembly’s opening day as protesters took their opposition to proposed new restrictions directly into the state Capitol.
With shouts of “My body. My choice,” a group of some 60 mostly female protesters made their way to the first floor of the Capitol with about 20 or so of them later making their way to the second floor where House and Senate members were being sworn into office for the 109th General Assembly.
But they did not get inside the respective House and Senate chambers and official proceedings weren’t interrupted. Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell of Nashville and Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey of Blountville were re-elected without opposition in the GOP-dominated Legislature.
Earlier, the protesters, many of them young women, split off from a rally and march of hundreds of demonstrators attending a nearby “March on Nashville.”
All were protesting lawmakers’ plans to pass abortion restriction legislation now permissible after state voters last year approved a Tennessee constitutional amendment that gave lawmakers more power to regulate the procedure.