You need a flowchart to follow this drama in the House as Republicans attempted to pull the SJR127 anti-abortion bill up for a vote. The attempt failed. It's deja vu all over again.

A bill sponsored by Dresden Democrat Sen. Roy Herron that would require informed consent for abortions was blocked by Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee today.

The intent of the bill was to reduce the number of abortions in Tennessee by requiring informed consent and a 24 hour waiting period. The bill would also require only physicians to perform abortions.

Sen. Herron cited a Heritage Foundation report to justify the bill, saying that his proposal offered a more immediate way to reduce abortions than a Republican proposal that would amend the State Constitution to outlaw abortions.

Is there anywhere else in the U.S. besides the State of Tennessee where Democrats introduce pro-life legislation based on Heritage Foundation studies only to have it struck down by Republicans?

Go figure.

From the Knoxville News Sentinel:

Abortion resolution fails again in House subcommittee

The measure sponsored by Rep. Dolores Gresham, a Somerville Republican, was voted down 6-3 Tuesday in the House Public Health and Family Assistance Subcommittee. The bill has repeatedly failed in the Democrat-controlled subcommittee.

Tennessee Democrats: 1, Republican Stunt Legislation: 0

Tennessean: Senate approves amendment to limit abortions

The state Senate handily approved a constitutional amendment allowing more limits on abortion, but the measure faces uncertain prospects in the House.

The vote was 23-9, with six Democrats voting for it.

Along the way, it was amended to include exceptions for rape, incest, and to protect the life of a pregnant woman. But:

[Sen. Diane Black, R-Gallatin] resisted efforts by several Democrats to insert a constitutional right to abortions in such cases.

Those are exceptions that President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander support, said Sen. Beverly Marrero, D-Memphis.

It still has to get out of House committee, pass in the House, and again next year in both the House and the Senate by a two-thirds majority before it would go on the ballot for Tennessee voters to decide.

UPDATE: Joe Powell has the vote breakdown and commentary.

Sorry for the double post this AM...lots happening this Monday...

(From later in the post, and the main point I'm trying to make: You'd think Dems would have learned from 2006, when many folks think the gay-marriage Constitutional amendment most likely cost Tennessee a Senate seat and the chance to elect the first Black Senator from the South since Reconstruction. It's disappointing to see Tennessee Democrats line up to support a lightning-rod social issue Constitutional amendment that will virtually guarantee a flood of right-wingers to the polls in 2010, the year Tennessee will elect its next Governor.)

This afternoon, SJ127, a measure designed to prevent the TN Constitution from protecting the right to abortion, will rear its ugly head on the floor of the Tennessee Senate once again. As is traditionally the case, it will be cosponsored by a passel of Republicans but also a couple of notable Tennessee Democrats, Sens. Tommy Kilby and Doug Henry. Again this year, it will be opposed by virtually all of the elected women Democratic Senators, including DavCo Sen. Thelma Harper, Memphis Sen. Beverly Marrero and Senate Speaker Pro Tem Rosalind Kurita, who gave a barnburner speech on her personal experiences as an OR nurse on the Senate floor last year. (Unfortunately Sen. Ford, who opposed SJ127 in 2007, is in the hospital and will be unable to cast her vote.)

SJR0127 was placed on the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee calendar for today.

The bill "adds new provision to Article I to provide that nothing in Constitution of Tennessee secures or protects right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion."

This get-out-the-wingnut-vote legislation was sponsored by Diane Black (R-Gallatin), and cosponsored by Beavers, Stanley, Southerland, Ketron, Woodson, Watson, Crowe, McNally, Norris, Finney R., Tracy, Johnson, Bunch, Kilby, Williams, Henry, Burchett, and Ramsey.

The Tennessee Republican Party is having a Jan. 29th prayer breakfast in downtown Nashville to pray for pending state legislation that will outlaw abortion in Tennessee. The featured speaker will be an "abortion survivor."

You can interfere in a woman's medical decisions and fight against her right to choose for only $50 per plate or $500 per table.