News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The State Legislature Friday morning passed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation.
The passage surprised many because the state senate had said it would only consider bills related to the budget or COVID-19.
“That was one of Governor (Bill) Lee’s initiatives that was part of his legislative package at the beginning of the year,” State Senator Paul Bailey said. “That was kind of a surprise to me that we ultimately took up that bill. It was a little bit out of the scope of what we had said as a Senate in in regards to legislation that we would pass. But, I think that was one of the compromises between the House and the Senate.”
“The House wanted to take that bill up. They wanted it to be heard. They wanted it to be passed. And so the Senate basically accepted the House’s request. And so both chambers took it up and passed it.”
“Our job is to do what we’re elected to do and send a message that if we’re in Nashville, we’re going to do what the people elected us to do,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton said. “So we move forward with passing good policy.”
The bill bans abortions after the point a fetal heartbeat can be detected. That can be as early as six weeks. Exceptions exist for a woman’s life in danger but not for rape or incest. The legislation also prohibits abortions being sought because of the child’s sex or race as well as the diagnosis of Down syndrome.
Sexton said those calling the bill’s passage a political maneuver in order to get a budget passed are wrong.
“I can tell you with 100 percent absolute certainty that in any conversation I had with the governor, lieutenant governor and with our members on the house side, it did not come up in negotiation,” Sexton said. “The House was going to pass it. We were moving forward regardless of what happens.”
“We never asked that to be passed. We never made it part of the budget negotiation.”
Sexton said he told House members at the start of the legislative session he did not believe in the senate’s approach to this June session.
“We started moving that bill on the House side before we ever started taking up the new budget,” Sexton said. “We started pushing that when we came back and got it to a point where it was on the House floor. So we felt very comfortable that, you know, one of the things we said in the House was when we came back and I told our members is we’re going to learn to pass good policy and it doesn’t matter if the Senate is moving it or not.”
Bailey said those reading into the late hour of passage Friday morning are not being fair. Bailey said it simply came down to the legislature trying to consider as many bills as possible while meeting in committees on numerous bills.
Planned Parenthood and the ALCU joined forces Friday afternoon to ask the courts to overturn the bill.
