I am yet to hear a non bullshit argument in favor of it.

Pretty much, it seems to be a license for the legislature to do whatever the hell they want.

Is there ANY reason to vote for it?

In for more info on Amendment 1.

I'll not vote on it. Abortion itself is perhaps the only major issue about which I still remain pretty much exactly ambivalent. Will let everyone else decide.

Anyway, of course the amendment can't ban abortion, but will just cause a passel of bills with onerous restrictions against clinics and the individual women themselves, likely each of which will have to go through the courts as they are appealed, causing beau coup waste of money, time, and effort, and promoting confusion until most of them are inevitably struck down as de facto abortion bans.

Lawyers will delight in it, and pols whose districts remain "pro-life" enough to be a swing vote issue can tout their efforts. Little will change except making it harder on women and possibly putting x number of clinic workers out of a job, at least off and on, and the legislature spending an undue amount of time on an issue that is already the settled law of the land.

- OS

I'll vote yes on 1. I want to slow abortion as much as possible.

Unless, I hear that the prop 1 is a smoke screen for something else, I am a yes. If it is a smokescreen, please post the info.

The life of a child comes before jobs and lawyers.

After reading Amendment 1, I will vote yes.  The Amendment does not ban anything, it returns our State Constitution to neutrality on the issue.  As with most issues, what I have seen reported on the up coming Amendments is being reported with a slant.
R4B

Does it bring more, or less government into our lives?

By itself, it doesn't seem to do either.  But it does open the door for state government to expand in ways that (as has already been pointed out) will probably lead to long and expensive battles in federal court, before the federal courts effectively put us back where we currently are.

Correct. Vote YES on 1.

The problem is that if you vote in the Gubernatorial race not voting is mathematically the same as voting no.

In order for the amendment to pass, it most have 50%+1 of the votes in the gubernatorial election.

That would fall under letting everyone else decide.

I was holding my post till I heard more info here I case there is something I didn't know.  I have read the amendment and the background behind it from both the "yes on 1" and "no on 1" groups.

Go tigers is spot on, yes on 1 for me.

I'm thinking I'm going to stay out of this one too, but still haven't made up my mind.  This is one of those things where, no matter what you decide, the People of Tennessee are probably going to lose.

I've been to both the NO Site and the YES Site and both groups are clearly trying to manipulate people into their way of thinking, instead of showing the facts and letting them decide for themselves.  I find it funny that neither site has the actual wording of the amendment, but makes sure you can buy t-shirts, signs, and donate.  Lots of big scary words are being used, along with repeating the same things over and over.  

Looks like Vote NO is funded by Planned Parenthood of Tennessee, while the Vote YES page doesn't say who they're funded by.  

CORRECTION:  The Vote YES page has the language of the amendment tucked into the right side of the page.  

For anyone who actually wants to read what it says on the ballot, here you go:

The only way to "let everyone else decide" is to not vote for governor.

This is my take on it as well.

What a bizarre contention. Not voting on the specific amendment is same as not showing at the polls at all as far as that issue is concerned.

Would you rather I don't vote or negate yours? As long as I don't vote "no", your "yes" vote has that much more weight.

- OS

Representative Kelly Keisling released an Easy To Understand Guide to Tennessee’s
November Constitutional Amendments

(NASHVILLE) — State Representative Kelly Keisling (R–Byrdstown) released an
easy-to-understand guide this week to help clarify the four constitutional amendments
that will appear on this year's ballot in November.


“We have had many folks across the district reach out to our office regarding these
four amendments,” said Keisling. “Because of this, we have put together the following
guide that will briefly tell you what voting YES will do and what voting NO will do so
that you can make your own informed decisions on these important issues."

Amendment One:
If you vote NO on amendment one, you are saying that you think there should be
fewer restrictions on abortions and that abortion clinics do not need to be licensed
or inspected. In addition, you believe late term (partial birth) abortions need fewer
restrictions.
If you vote YES on amendment one, you are saying that there should be some
regulations on abortion such as, licensure requirements for abortion facilities and
stopping late term (partial birth) abortions.

Amendment Two:
If you vote NO, on amendment two, you are saying that the people of Tennessee
should be able to vote and choose the Tennessee Supreme Court Justices.
If you vote YES on amendment two you are saying that the Governor should have
the right to appoint the Tennessee Supreme Court Justices along with the
Legislature approving of these choices.

Amendment Three:
If you vote NO, on amendment three, you are saying that you believe Tennessee
needs to eventually get a State Income tax.
If you vote YES, on amendment three, you are saying that Tennessee should never
have a State Income Tax.

Amendment Four:
If you vote NO, you do not believe that Veterans Organizations should be able to
have charitable gaming events to raise money for helping our local vets.
If you vote YES, you do believe that Veterans Organizations should be able to have
charitable gaming events so that they could better assist our local veterans.

“My hope is that this guide will help in clarifying some of the questions that have been
asked over the last couple of months,” Keisling continued. “As always, I encourage
each and every one of you to get out there and vote! If you have any questions about
these amendments or any other issue, please do not hesitate to contact my office
by calling (615) 741-6852 or emailing [email protected]

I don't think you understand what I'm saying. It isn't simply # of yes vs. # of no. The way that the Amendment voting works is based on the number of yes votes. The yes votes have to be 50% plus 1 of the number of votes cast for Governor. So mathematically speaking If someone votes for governor but doesn't vote for the Amendment it is the same as voting no. So speaking as someone who wants the amendment to pass, I'd prefer you stay home and not dilute my vote.

Where is that officially explained? Never heard of such, where any vote on any ballot was dependent on another one?

- OS

Article XI Sec. 3 TN Constitution
..And if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments by a majority of all the citizens of the State voting for Governor, voting in their favor, such amendment or amendments shall become a part of this Constitution...

To my knowledge, that has been interpreted as simply "those who show  for a Gubernatorial election", not whether they actually do vote in that particular race? Would like to a specific "ruling" on that?

Would agree if that is the case, though, then mathematically, yes not voting would be equivalent of a no vote.

But you're saying if I come to poll, vote for whatever, but not in Gov race, then my non-vote for an amendment would be same as if I stayed home?

- OS

Thats the way it reads, but I'm not 100% sure. ETA: Either way it's not simply yes vs no.

Well, it is if only yes/no votes of those who show at all are tabulated, regardless of whether Governor race box is checked.

For one practical thing, wonder if our tabulation expertise can compute those Boolean variables.

- OS

Abortion clinics are already regulated by the state as medical clinics, including a requirement to be inspected (same as any other medical clinic).

Doesn't do the pro-amendment 1 crowd any good to use the same "OMG, the sky is falling!" tactics that the Brady bunch uses.

It doesn't matter which population is counted.  It is still Yes must be > x/2. The only question is whether x is the total number that shows up to the polls or the people who cast a ballot for governor.  Either way if you are in X and you don't vote for an amendment it counts like a No vote.

Well, here's quite definitive answer to my own question from fellow member on my "home forum" (except maybe about reliability of tabulated results of course), and you were exactly right, mea culpa for doubting :)

From http://www.tn.gov/sos/election/results/2002-11/Amend-info.pdf

"Counting the votes
In order for the amendment to pass and become part of the Constitution, two things must happen:
1) The amendment must get more "yes" votes than "no" votes; and
2) The number of "yes" votes must be a majority of the votes cast in the gubernatorial election.
To determine the votes needed, all votes for all candidates for governor are added together. This number
is divided by two or halved. The number of "yes" votes must exceed that number. If the number of "yes"
votes exceeds the number, the Constitutional amendment passes and becomes part of the Constitution."

- OS

Sad that it's so unnecessarily complicated.  

When I'm getting raped by the government, no should mean no and yes should mean yes.

Agree. Hell, we have 5 city pension referendums in Knoxville, quite unclear upon reading, and even after searching for info, still have no idea what effect they really have. So in this case, I'm voting no on all, as I can't vote for anything a reasonably well educated feller can't grok. I'd just not vote on them, but for all I know we have some similar clause buried in City Charter somewhere.

- OS

Yeah, now that the "not voting" thing is cleared up, I'm probably not going to vote for Governor or the amendment. (though I don't have real confidence in tabulation of those two Boolean variables). Guess I need to decide, was planning on voting tomorrow.

- OS

Any idea if the yes votes have to be qualified by voting for governor?  Could I effectively get 2 votes by voting yes, but not voting for governor?

The Tennessee Health Department classifies abortion clinics as "Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Centers"  (TCA 68-11-201).

You can look up the most recent inspection of a given clinic by going to http://health.state.tn.us/HCF/Facilities_Listings/facilities.htm

From the above link, Planned Parenthood has a clinic in Memphis that has had a state issued license since 1979 and their current license expires 4/16/2015.  They also have a clinic in Nashville, that has also had a state issued license since 1979, and their current license expires 6/8/2015.


When the people trying to get me to vote for something, include blatantly false statements in their sales pitch, I'm inclined to wonder what else they are making up.

Yeah, I don't have a lot of confidence in the Boolean integrity of the system myself to account for each combination.

I'd wager a hamburger that they simply count yes/no votes initially. If really close, I ASSume they could parse the data more closely. Probably. Maybe.

- OS

I am voting YES on it.  If for nothing else it will cut back on the amount of my tax dollars that will be going to 'Planned Parenthood' for their unregulated abortion clinics.  Right now three out of four abortions preformed in this state are on OUT OF STATE girls PP told to come here or brought here themselves due to our lax regulations right now.

There is a huge sign in the UT library saying to vote no because it will help with women's health.

I guess, as always with those who know better, it's going to come down to who is manipulating us the least.

I can't believe the number of people here who want MORE government in their lives.

The legislature WILL vote to ban abortion, or put a ton of regs on it.

Then, in the next election, they will LOSE their majority, because they pissed off a lot of women.

THEN, the SCOTUS will overturn their damn law.

If you do not agree with this scenario, you need to look at how it went in other states.

That's one valid way of looking at it.




And that's probably the smartest way of looking at it.

Toss in the false claims about abortion clinics not being licensed or inspected, and the women may just be pissed off enough to help the democrats take back some seats, regardless of whether or not amendment 1 passes.

Abortion Amendment backers urged to sit out gov's race

Hmm...

If you support amendment 1, you should not cast a vote for governor?  Seems likely that democrats would lean toward opposing amendment 1, given the difference in party position on abortion, between the democrat and republican parties.  Support amendment 1 by helping the democrats win the governor race?

And people wonder why the republican have been having so much trouble beating the democrats at the polls...

statements such as this one tend to make me leery on voting yes on this

".Amendment 1 would once again allow common-sense abortion regulations to protect women and children, including the following:"  http://factn.org/tennessee-amendment-1/

seems like they use the same familiar lingo used  with the gun grabbers

a gun doesn't kill, people kill. An abortion does kill.

Common sense tells me to vote yes on 1.

I am  libertarian on many/most issues. Abortion is not one of them, It is fucking murder, I don't want to hear any bullshit argument. It is only acceptable in my opinion if it is to truly ( not some bullshit to get it done)  done to save the life of the mother.