The following highlights recent news of state actions on women's health issues.

Abortion Regulations

• Tennessee: The state House Public Health and Family Assistance Subcommittee on Wednesday voted 4-3 to reject a bill (SJR 127) that would have amended the state constitution to say that it does not guarantee the right to abortion, the Nashville City Paper reports (Rodgers, Nashville City Paper, 4/13). The state Senate last month voted to approve the legislation, sponsored by Sen. David Fowler (R), which if ratified would have amended the constitution to say, "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/13). The subcommittee's vote likely will stop the progress of the bill until 2007, according to the City Paper (Nashville City Paper, 4/13).

Other Regulations

• Delaware: State Sen. Margaret Rose Henry (D) on Tuesday introduced a bill (SB 291) that includes provisions to protect pregnant inmates, the Wilmington News Journal reports. The bill -- which is co-sponsored by state Sens. Karen Peterson (D) and Harris McDowell (D) -- would require that guards are informed when an inmate is pregnant and that pregnancy be taken into account in all decisions concerning the inmate's "activity, medication, medical attention and nutrition made by correctional staff." Pregnant inmates also would have to be provided with vitamin and mineral supplements in adherence with obstetrical guidelines, according to the bill. In addition, the bill says that inmates experiencing labor would have to be transported to a hospital if a medical staff person were not available at the prison. The bill also would require that inmates who have not arranged for adoption be allowed to keep their infants for at least eight weeks after delivery (Williams et al., Wilmington News Journal, 4/12).