Advocates for abortion rights were bracing Wednesday for renewed assaults on abortion access in Washington as well as in state capitols after widespread Republican electoral gains.

Anti-abortion forces in Tennessee savored their ballot-box victory, the passage of an amendment saying that nothing in the Tennessee Constitution “secures or protects” a right to abortion. The measure was intended to nullify a state court ruling that a right to privacy in the State Constitution prohibited some of the abortion restrictions adopted in neighboring states, like instructions about what doctors must tell patients.

“We are grateful to God and to the good people of Tennessee for this victory,” said Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life and a coordinator of the ballot campaign.

Ashley Coffield, the president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Greater Memphis, said the amendment “puts Tennessee women in a very vulnerable place.”