What is going on in TN with Dems?
TN became the first state to criminalize women for pregnancy outcome when the Repub governorsigned a bill--supposedly pushed/supported by Dems from Shelby County (Memphis area)--that "allows prosecutors to charge a woman with criminal assault if she uses illegal drugs during her pregnancy and her fetus or newborn is considered harmed as a result. Haslam ignored these recommendations — and the recommendations of nearly every major medical association, including the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy — and signed the measure anyway."
http://www.alternet.org/gender/its-official-tennessee-becomes-first-state-jail-women-pregnancy-outcomes
What is the story? A fellow Dem posted this on a fb page and right away a mutual fb friend--Repub who lives in Memphis--
shot right in claiming this was instigated and supported by all the Dems in Shelby county. Are they all out of their
minds? Is there a true Dem left in that part of TN? Apparently it didn't matter to anybody that all the health care organizations
were against it. In fact, here's the language from ACOG's website:
Substance Abuse Reporting and Pregnancy: The Role of the Obstetrician-Gynecologist
ABSTRACT: Drug enforcement policies that deter women from seeking prenatal care are contrary to the welfare of the mother and fetus. Incarceration and the threat of incarceration have proved to be ineffective in reducing the incidence of alcohol or drug abuse. Obstetrician–gynecologists should be aware of the reporting requirements related to alcohol and drug abuse within their states. They are encouraged to work with state legislators to retract legislation that punishes women for substance abuse during pregnancy.
http://www.acog.org/Resources_And_Publications/Committee_Opinions/Committee_on_Health_Care_for_Underserved_Women/Substance_Abuse_Reporting_and_Pregnancy_The_Role_of_the_Obstetrician_Gynecologist
ACOG was not alone in opposing the bill.
The American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other major medical associations — joined by local doctors and addiction specialists — have warned that measures criminalizing pregnant women will only discourage them from seeking prenatal care and drug treatment. These concerns were made expressly clear to the governor by groups like SisterReach, a Tennessee-based reproductive justice group and Healthy & Free Tennessee, a state-wide reproductive health coalition.
“Despite our advocacy attempts and regardless of the impact this law will have on marginalized families; despite the danger that medical professionals have noted a law of this magnitude will cause, our governor chose his party over the experts,” SisterReach founder and CEO Cherisse A. Scott said in a statement. ”This law separates mothers from their children and is not patient-centered. Tennessee families who are already being hit the hardest by policies such as the failure to expand Medicaid, poverty and a lack of available drug treatment facilities will be most deeply impacted by this bill. Mothers struggling with drug addiction in Shelby County, rural communities throughout Tennessee and poor mothers and their families will be the ones who suffer the effects of this dangerous legislation the most.”
Please, will TN Dems tell us how this came about?
= new reply since forum marked as read
They don't call Nashville (one of the MORE liberal areas of the state BTW) the "Buckle of the Bible Belt" for nothing. That's the religious part of it. There's also a culture of worshiping at the altar of "success", i.e., wealth.
To illustrate this last part, there's a saying I first heard as a child in the 50s. It goes, "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?", said as a rejoinder when you can't out argue someone. Think about that statement for a minute. It implies that you can't be intelligent without being rich. It equates wealth directly with intelligence. It implies that the wealthy are "better" than anybody else. And it implies that the ONLY use for intelligence is to get rich. And probably more that I haven't thought of. 
THIS is what southern leftists face in every argument, even if it's not directly stated. It's the same attitude that brought the poor into the Confederate Army to fight and die for wealthy slave owning plantation owners, even though most of them didn't have a pot to piss in and didn't own slaves themselves.
It's a frustrating situation.
Most southerners also have a pretty strong sense of family too. I had something like 41 first cousins that I hung out with when I was a kid. That makes it hard to leave when you have to leave that support system.
I'm old now too. Might as well stay and fight till I die. Or they kill me.
