Oklahoma to make abortion doctors felons

[Old Dan]

Robert Reich:

Today Oklahoma lawmakers enacted a bill criminalizing abortion; anyone performing an abortion would be imprisoned for at least a year, and any physician participating in an abortion would lose his or her license to practice medicine in the state. The bill makes an exception only when the life (but not the health) of the pregnant woman is at risk but makes no exceptions for rape or incest. The vote was along party lines, with almost all Republicans lining up behind it and most Democrats against.

Republicans in Oklahoma, as elsewhere, have morality upside down. The moral problems of our age aren't personal decisions people make about their own bodies; they're public decisions people with power make about what happens to large numbers of other people over whom they have control. Instead of criminalizing a woman’s right to choose, Republicans ought to criminalize CEOs who play fast and loose with their worker’s safety, bankers who defraud their investors, and lawmakers who flout the U.S. Constitution (remember "Roe versus Wade?") by criminalizing constitutional rights.

What do you think?

Oklahoma passes bill making performing abortions a felony

The Oklahoma Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would make it a felony to perform an abortion in the state, and if signed by Gov. Mary Fallin (R) would put it at odds with federal law.

Senate Bill 1552, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Nathan Dahm, passed with a 33-12 vote and no debate. The latest version of the bill cleared the House in late April, and it would automatically become law within five days if Fallin does not sign or does not veto.

"No person shall perform or induce an abortion upon a pregnant woman," the bill's language reads, striking through the clause "unless that person is a physician licensed to practice medicine in the State of Oklahoma. "

"Any person violating this section shall be guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not less than one (1) year nor more than three (3) years in the State Penitentiary," the bill continues.

What in tarnation!

The bill would also revoke the medical licenses of doctors who perform abortions, except in cases where the mother's life is endangered. It does not include exceptions for rape or incest.

Separately, Oklahoma's House passed legislation Thursday that would allow the state's Department of Health to develop a public information campaign "for the purpose of achieving an abortion-free society." That bill, passed 69-15, now goes to the Senate.

Ya know what, I hope this bill passes the Oklahoma Senate and the Governor goes ahead and signs it into law, so's that the ACLU and Planned Parenthood and NARAL and NOW and all them other groups Ty's scared of will call for an emergency injunction from the US Supreme Court to halt the new law's implementation and make a definitive, Scalia-free decision on upholdin Roe vs Wade.

In the meantime, mebbe we can send Bart to the Oklahoma Senate.

[brugroffil]

dumb law meant to rile up idiots and get them to vote in November, much like NC's law.

[VoxRat]

dumb law meant to rile up idiots and get them to vote in November, much like NC's law.

Worked for Dubya in 2004!

[Evil Squirrel Overlord]

Without this law OK would have gone for Hillary in November.

Disaster averted.
http://www.270towin.com/maps/adjV0