Amendment One Riddled with Ironies

by Lei Ann Ulep
Amendment 1, on the ballot tomorrow, is riddled with one irony after another.  Roe vs. Wade became law because women were either doing their own homemade abortions or resorting to “back alley” procedures. Needless to say it was unsafe and downright inhumane.

Lei Ann Ulep

Irony #1

The sole reason Amendment 1 is on this Tuesday’s ballot is because abortion clinics in Tennessee are being run under zero guidelines.   They don’t need the health department’s approval to perform procedures like other medical facilities.  Hence there are abortion clinics that are unclean and unsafe.  Amendment 1, if passed, will cause no immediate effect on abortion in Tennessee. However, it will enable Tennesseans, through their state legislators, to pass legislation that requires abortion clinics to be regulated, like all other medical facilities, making them safe for women to have a proper and informed procedure.  
The irony is that the same groups who backed Roe vs. Wade are the same group blocking Amendment 1, even though both have the same goal of making abortions cleaner and safer.

Irony #2
The Tennessean recently reported that the campaign No on 1 is 87% funded by Planned Parenthood, nearly $1.7 million. Yes on 1 is funded by the National Right to Life PAC, donating $15,000, and businessman John Gregory with $150,000, but 83% of funding is coming from individuals. (http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2014/11/01/follow-money-amendment/18198625/)  It has rarely been pointed out that Planned Parenthood is profiting from these procedures. The organization says they are fighting the proposed amendment because they are doing this out of the principal, craftily labeled as “pro-choice”.  This legislation is not taking any choice away but in fact, modernizing the choice to have a clean and safe abortion.
I am pro-business on all levels, but if you are going to profit you must have and follow regulations especially if that business is medical in nature.  What’s ironic is liberals have always LOVED regulations but now we know that they are only for regulations if it does not include the corporations that fund their political candidates.  This is not to be mean or hateful but simply being truthful.
The irony is that for a change the left/progressives are the capitalist here, as well as standing against government regulation of health facilities. 

Irony #3
The No on 1 campaign is funded by progressive type groups like American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood but out of either ignorance or greed, they are actually keeping abortions from being more modernized because of fear that the Pro-Life groups will use this legislation to move things backwards i.e. introduce state legislation that will infringe upon women’s privacy.  Arguments against the amendment paints, the perception that it would take away a women’s choice when in fact, it just gives women better and informed choices.  That thinking of not doing something because it “might” lead to something backwards, is irrational and ironic because progressive means “favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters” – dictionary.com   
 
In short, Progressive groups are getting in the way of progress.  Progress is progress, it doesn’t matter who or what is funding it or what their ulterior motives are behind the funds.

We recognize that both campaigns, No on 1 and Yes on 1, have their own messages.  This opinion piece/letter is to communicate to our fellow Tennesseans to forget what both campaigns are saying and cut through the clutter.  Vote Yes on Amendment 1 to ensure abortions are done safely, cleanly and most of all humanely.  

Lei Ann is a Political veteran with experience working on six campaigns spanning from 1994 to 2014.  She served in different capacities on statewide campaigns in three states. She Served as Campaign Manager in a Congressional race and as the Regional Field Director in the battleground area of one of the biggest surprise victories of 2002.