Two of the state's most-widely-known conservative leaders were in Greeneville Thursday afternoon speaking about their statewide effort in support of a ban on partial-birth abortions in Tennessee.

David Fowler, president of Family Action of Tennessee, and Bobbie Patray, president of the Tennessee Eagle Forum, stopped briefly at the Greene County Courthouse and spoke with a Greeneville Sun reporter about the educational initiative they have started after a recent opinion issued by the state Attorney General.

Fowler and Patray are backing Senate Joint Resolution 127, a state constitutional amendment to reverse a state Supreme Court decision in 2000 that said there was a constitutional right to abortion in Tennessee.

That decision made Tennessee one of 16 states in the nation to have their supreme courts find a right to abortion in their constitutions, Fowler said.

Because of the 2000 Supreme Court decision, the Tennessee Attorney General on Feb. 29 issued an official opinion that a law banning partial-birth abortion would be "constitutionally suspect."

Partial-birth abortion involves partially delivering a fetus, then killing the fetus before it is completely delivered.

Since the Attorney General opinion was issued, Fowler and Patray have been traveling throughout the state and stopping in many cities to share their views.

The press conference on Thursday included the unveiling of a video called "Six Against Six Million," which explains that six members of a Tennessee House of Representatives subcommittee have repeatedly voted against the bill, SJR 127.

Those six are preventing six million Tennessee voters to make their own decisions on partial-birth abortion, according to the video.

Fowler is a former state senator of Hamilton County and sponsor of SJR 127.

Fowler said in the past few weeks he has contacted several state legislators to see if they knew that Tennessee has no law against partial-birth abortion, and if they were aware of the attorney general's recent opinion, and found no legislators they spoke to knew about it.

If the legislators didn't know, then Fowler said he thought the general public doesn't know, so he and Patray began their educational initiative.

If SJR 127 is not passed in the next couple of weeks, a constitutional amendment cannot be on the ballot until 2014, Fowler said.

Patray noted that SJR 127 calls for Tennessee's constitution to be neutral on the issue of abortion. Then, the state legislature could pass abortion laws without being limited by the Constitution.

The proposed constitutional amendment says, "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother."

Fowler said State Rep. David Hawk, R-5th, of Greeneville, has signed a pledge to bring SJR 127 to the House floor for consideration.

Sixty-six such votes are needed to get the resolution to the floor, he said.

For more information, or to view a video, visit www.lifepetition.org.