The West Fayette Republican Club has cried foul against the “deceptive” defeat of the Heartbeat Bill in the Tennessee Senate and called for a number of steps to correct that error.
The group unanimously passed a resolution regarding the Heartbeat Bill on Thursday, Hal Rounds, the president, said in a statement.
The club has called upon Republican senators to “return to the aggressive support of the Heartbeat Bill” and extend the legislative session or call a special session, and that stage agencies should record the number of abortions during the time the bill has not been approved. Furthermore, the West Fayette Republican Party asks that volunteers portray the number of such abortions with crosses posted on the Legislative Plaza along with a list of senators who did not have their names listed as voting in favor of bringing the Heartbeat Bill to a full Senate vote.
On April 22, a majority of the State Senate voted to table the motion to reconsider the Heartbeat Bill through a recall, putting an end to any further action on the measure during the legislative session, The Tennessee Star reported.
The Senate version of the Heartbeat Bill was sent to “summer study” by the Judiciary Committee on April 9. Pro-life supporters said that could mean the end of the legislation.
The House version of the bill, HB0077 by Representative Micah Van Huss (R-Jonesborough), passed the full House on March 7 by a vote of 65-21-7 (Present Not Voting).
The full language of the West Fayette Republican Club’s resolution follows.
Whereas SB1236 was filed by Senator Mark Pody for introduction in the Tennessee Senate on February 7, 2019 and was subsequently amended by SA0277, popularly known as “The Heartbeat Bill,” for its core objective of defending the life of each human child whose life has begun in the womb of the mother, and
Whereas SB1236 was defeated in the Senate session of 2019 by successive postponements in the Senate Judiciary Committee, ultimately being “Deferred to Summer Study,” a deceitful process that is generally tantamount to defeat by evasion, known to be used to insulate the defeat of a measure from those public servants who accomplish the defeat when the measure is known to be demanded by the people of Tennessee, and
Whereas the procedures provided in the Senate rules (specifically Rule 63) allow a bill to be put before the Senate for a vote despite its obstruction in committee, and
Whereas the sponsor, Senator Mark Pody did act under the authority of Rule 63, filing the required “Notice to Recall from Committee” on April 15, 2019, and
Whereas the actual hearing on the Motion to Recall from Committee was tabled using a voice vote, despite the call for the electronically recorded voting process which would have served to expose which Senators voted against the Heartbeat Bill, and
Whereas the people of Tennessee recognize the medical and moral truth that, from the first reflexive spasms that announce the sparks of a functioning central nervous system, fed by the feeble beginning pulses of the nascent human heart, to the blossoming rhythm of the child’s pounding heart, sparking the consciousness of self that long precedes the emergence of the child from the protection and nourishment of the womb, that human being is alive, and
Whereas the killing of a living child in the womb is homicide, regardless of whether the statutory law officially recognizes that fact and provides safeguards to prohibit such homicide, and
Whereas the stream of homicides perpetrated on human babies through abortion in Tennessee persists as a result of this furtively contrived defeat of the Heartbeat Bill, and
Whereas it was attempted to divert focus on the defeat of the Heartbeat Bill by posing the legislative process as the thing that must be protected, announcing that the committee system “… is the lifeblood and the backbone of our legislative process. To bypass it puts that entire process at risk…” , and
Whereas the Rule 63 “safety valve” exists precisely because the committee system, however necessary and useful, can be – and in this case was – used to frustrate the people of Tennessee, who want to see their representatives take actual responsibility for their actions on behalf of the citizens of the State, and
Whereas SB1257/HB1029, titled the “Human Life Protection Act” merely announces that Tennessee will stand by and watch as some other state takes on the challenges of confronting the intensely flawed policies in the Roe v. Wade ruling by enacting their own equivalent to the “Heartbeat Bill,” facing the inevitable attacks with courage and commitment, and, finally, struggling through the court system to at last destroy the Roe v. Wade precedent, proving their leadership and spine that the Tennessee Assembly seems to lack,
Therefore we, the members of the West Fayette County Republican Club, do hereby declare that the following be
Resolved, that we urgently request that the Republican members of the Tennessee Senate return to the aggressive support of the Heartbeat Bill, extending the legislative session as necessary, notwithstanding the sentiment that the session is presently coming to a close, and be it further
Resolved, that whatever personal sacrifices must be made by the elected Senators of the State of Tennessee, it shall be established that protecting the life of the children presently in the wombs of their mothers in Tennessee shall be their personal priority, opening a special session of the Tennessee state assembly, until the Heartbeat Bill is brought to a practical state of perfection and enacted into law, and, be it further
Resolved, that, in the meantime, the Tennessee health services and development agency shall record the number of abortions accomplished in Tennessee from April 22, 2019 until a Tennessee statute that truly accomplishes the purpose of the Heartbeat Bill becomes law, and that tally shall be delivered to every Tennessee Senator who did not insist that their name be shown, on April 22, as voting to bring the Heartbeat Bill to the floor, and be it further
Resolved, that the daily tally of abortion deaths be portrayed by crosses posted by volunteers invited by the governor, on the Legislative Plaza or equivalent publicly noticeable location outside the Capitol, and be it further
Resolved, that the growing display of crosses may be accompanied by an adjacent list of the Senators who did not insist, on April 22, to have their names listed as voting to bring the Heartbeat Bill to a full Senate vote, on a sign under the caption “But we protected the committee system.”
Subscribed:
All members of the West Fayette Republican Club in attendance, May 23, 2019
Hal Rounds, President
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Photo “Mark Pody” by Mark Pody. Background Photo “New Born Baby” by Ernest F. CC BY-SA 3.0.
