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Oklahoma legislature passes bill making it a felony to perform abortions
By Mark Berman May 19 at 2:02 PM
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, left, speaks during a bill signing for a bill requiring doctors in Oklahoma to check a new prescription drug database before prescribing certain addictive drugs, in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, March 31, 2015. It the first bill Fallin has signed this legislative session, and it will take effect Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, left, has not said if she plans to sign the bill. (Sue Ogrocki/AP)
Lawmakers in Oklahoma approved a bill Thursday that would make performing abortions a felony and revoke the medical licenses of any physician who assists in such a procedure.
This sweeping measure, which opponents have described as unconstitutional and unprecedented, was sent to Gov. Mary Fallin (R) for her signature.
Fallin has five days to decide whether to sign the bill, and her office did not immediately respond to a request Thursday about her plans.
The Oklahoma bill is the first such measure of its kind, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which says that other states seeking to ban abortion have simply banned the procedure rather than attaching penalties like this.
According to the bill, a person who performs or induces an abortion will be guilty of a felony and punished with between one and three years in the state penitentiary.
This legislation also says that any physician who participates in an abortion will be “prohibited from obtaining or renewing a license to practice medicine in this state.” However, medical licenses will not be stripped from doctors who perform abortions deemed necessary to save the mother’s life.
The bill passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives with a vote of 59-to-9 last month. On Thursday, the state’s senate passed it with a vote of 33-to-12.
State Sen. Nathan Dahm, a Republican who represents Tulsa County, told the Associated Press he hopes the Oklahoma measure could eventually lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman’s right to an abortion.
The Oklahoma State Medical Association, which has called the measure “troubling,” said it would not take a position on the legality of abortion. However, the group said that it would “oppose legislation that is designed to intimidate physicians or override their medical judgment.”
“Oklahoma politicians have made it their mission year after year to restrict women’s access to vital health care services, yet this total ban on abortion is a new low,” Amanda Allen, senior state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, a non-profit legal group, said in a statement about the measure last month. “When abortion is illegal, women and their health, futures, and families suffer.”
Allen said Thursday that her group views the bill as unconstitutional, writing in a letter to Fallin that they urge her to “veto this blatantly unconstitutional measure.” Allen also said that the bill would “almost certainly lead to expensive court challenges that the state of Oklahoma simply cannot defend in light of longstanding Supreme Court precedent.”
Once I worked as an intern in the state capital. One of the representatives I worked for was this middle-aged guy. And he hated the tampon and napkin machines in the women’s bathrooms. Hated them. He insisted that they weren’t necessary.
I found out why after I’d been working there, oh, about a month. My period started suddenly, as it sometimes does, and I asked to excuse myself to go to the ladies’ room. He wanted to know why. I told him.
He started ranting about how lazy women were. How we wasted time. How we were so careless and unhygenic, and that there was no call for that. He finished by telling me that I certainly was NOT going to the ladies’ room and that I was just going to sit there and work. He finished this off with a decisive nod, as if I’d just been told and there could be no possible argument.
“If I don’t go,” I said in an overly patient tone, “the blood is going to soak through my pants, stain my new skirt that I just bought, and possibly get on this chair I’m sitting in. I need something to soak up the blood. That’s why I need to go to the bathroom.”
His face turned oatmeal-gray; an expression of pure horror spread across his face. He leaned forward and whispered, “Wait, you mean that if you don’t go, you’ll just keep on bleeding? I thought that women could turn it off any time that they wanted!”
I thought, You have got to be kidding.
Several horrified whispers later, I learned that he wasn’t. He actually thought a) that women could shut down the menstrual cycle at will, b) that we essentially picked a week per month to spend more time in the bathroom, i.e. to goof off, and c) that napkins and tampons were sex toys paid for by Health and Human Services. I didn’t know the term then, but he believed that tampons were dildos. Which was why he and a good number of his friends considered them luxuries.
And that’s how, at twenty, I had to give a talk on menstruation to a middle-aged married state representative who was one of my bosses. American politics, ladies and gentlemen.
Karmamatterz » Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:00 pm wrote:Which religions would be lumped into the religious right?
Just Christians? Would right wing conservative Muslims also be considered? Hindus?
I'm very very surprised how conservative Christians (which I'm not) are consistently attacked but ultra conservative Muslims are treated as peachy keen. A Muslim woman beheaded for cheating on her husband? Nuttin to worry about. It's religious freedom. Right? A conservative Christian preacher in the U.S. rants about abortion or gays and he is called a fascist monster. Most discussions on RI that involve religion are fruitless and usually are laced with appropriate dog whistle material.
MacCruiskeen » Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:03 pm wrote:Karmamatterz » Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:00 pm wrote:Which religions would be lumped into the religious right?
Just Christians? Would right wing conservative Muslims also be considered? Hindus?
I'm very very surprised how conservative Christians (which I'm not) are consistently attacked but ultra conservative Muslims are treated as peachy keen. A Muslim woman beheaded for cheating on her husband? Nuttin to worry about. It's religious freedom. Right? A conservative Christian preacher in the U.S. rants about abortion or gays and he is called a fascist monster. Most discussions on RI that involve religion are fruitless and usually are laced with appropriate dog whistle material.
Bullshit. Who says that?
Karmamatterz » Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:00 pm wrote:A Muslim woman beheaded for cheating on her husband? Nuttin to worry about. It's religious freedom. Right? A conservative Christian preacher in the U.S. rants about abortion or gays and he is called a fascist monster. Most discussions on RI that involve religion are fruitless and usually are laced with appropriate dog whistle material.
backtoiam wrote:Our females are allowed to wear bikinis and do as they will.
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