By Dave Andrusko
In January 2008, the State of Mississippi, and for that
fact, the entire United States, will lose one of the
most dedicated pro-life lieutenant governors of all
time. Amy Tuck, Mississippi’s lieutenant governor for
the last eight years, is term-limited and cannot seek
re-election.
In Mississippi, the lieutenant governor
is widely regarded as one of the most powerful elected
officials in the state. The lieutenant governor presides
over the state Senate and is in charge of all committee
appointments and bill referrals.
Most bills are acted upon at the will and
pleasure of the statewide elected lieutenant governor.
(In Mississippi, the governor and lieutenant governor’s
offices are separate and they do not run as a team in
elections.)
Lt. Gov. Tuck has used the power of this
office repeatedly to advance pro-life laws and obtained
advice from National Right to Life officials. During her
eight years in office, over 20 pieces of pro-life
legislation have been enacted, 6 in 2004 alone.
Subsequently, the number of abortions
performed in the state has decreased over 60% from
all-time highs in the early 1990s.
While various laws were enacted during her
tenure, she also was instrumental in appointing
officials who respect human life to committees, boards,
and commissions. Upon creation of the Mississippi
Commission on the Status of Women, Tuck made sure that
all of her appointees to the commission were individuals
that held a deep respect for the lives of unborn
children.
Tuck is quick to credit all this success
to the advice from officials of the National Right to
Life state legislative team: “There was never a time
that I did not consult with the team of experts that the
National Right to Life folks have assembled for state
leaders to access.” Tuck continued, “The good people of
Mississippi are very pro-life and I wanted to do all
that I could to advance the cause of life with the best
legal expertise I could get in the country.”
Tuck, who holds a law degree from
Mississippi College law school, has been an articulate
and passionate defender of human life for many years.
First elected to the Mississippi State Senate in 1990,
as a Democrat, Tuck then went on to run statewide and
win as a pro-life Democrat for lieutenant governor in
1999.
With the 2002 national election between
pro-abortion Democrat Al Gore and pro-life Republican
George W. Bush, Tuck could no longer consider herself a
Democrat. “Primarily because of the abortion issue, I
could not honestly call myself a Democrat anymore,” she
said. By 2003 Amy Tuck had switched to the Republican
Party and was re-elected to the lieutenant governor’s
office with over 60% of the vote!
During her eight years in office, Tuck
shepherded the passage of many bills, some of which are:
- A resolution
urging Congress to ban partial-birth abortions
(2001)
- A ban on
taxpayer funding of abortion (2002)
- Choose Life
car license plates to fund pregnancy care centers
(2003)
- Ambulatory
surgical regulations for abortion facilities (2004)
- Abortion
complications reporting (2004)
- Fetal
homicide law (2004)
- Abortion
facility regulations and licensure (2005)
- Sonogram as
“informed consent” for women before an abortion
(2007)
- “Trigger-ban”
on abortions to be enforced upon U.S. Supreme Court
reversal of Roe vs. Wade (2007)
While there were many laws that were
enacted concerning the issue of abortion, other life
issues were not neglected. Measures were put in place to
prevent health care rationing, euthanasia, and assisted
suicide. A conscience clause for health care workers who
object to being involved in life-ending treatment of
human beings was also enacted.
“Just knowing that these laws are now in
place has made my tenure as lieutenant governor so
worthwhile,” Tuck said. “It has been a real honor to
work with the wonderful state legislative team that NRLC
has put together.”
Tuck concluded, “All of us, the NRLC
staff and my own, working long hours, many times under
crushing time constraints, can know in our hearts that
lives are being protected from the laws that we were
able to enact in the last eight years.”
