Post 3: Oklahoma puts more parameters around abortion

In a vote that definitely brightened my day, the Oklahoma Senate voted Tuesday to override its governor’s vetoes and go through with two uncommonly strong anti-abortion issues.

 

The new laws require women to undergo an ultrasound examination and listen to a description of the readings before having an abortion. Not even victims of rape and incest are allowed to forgo the procedure, according to sources like CNN and the New York Times. The vote was 36-12.

 

Chris Benge, speaker of the house and a Republican, said this about Tuesday’s vote:

 

“We must move to stop the degradation of human life seen in recent years and stand up for those who cannot defend themselves.”

 

The governor, a Democrat, had a very polar view, however. Gov. Brad Henry called the law “an unconstitutional attempt by the Oklahoma legislature to insert government into the private lives and decisions of its citizens,” according to CNN.

 

As a conservative and a Christian, I have to side with Benge and the Republicans – and Democrats – who overrode this veto.

 

Perhaps it is an invasion of privacy, of sorts. But I am fully on board with the government intervening in someone’s personal decision when that decision involves the lives of others. Yes, a fetus is a life.

 

I can’t help but think of the scene from Juno in which the young pregnant teen sees her baby for the first time in an ultrasound, and realizes that she has a person, not an organism, inside of her. It’s a pivotal point in the movie, and ultimately leads her to choosing life for her unborn child.

 

There has been strong opposition, however – not necessarily from those in Oklahoma, but from liberal minds in other parts of the country. The Center for Reproductive Rights in New York has already filed a lawsuit.

 

The other part of the new legislation approved Tuesday prohibits pregnant women and their families from seeking legal damages if physicians deliberately withhold information from them about their pregnancies.

 

Oklahoma isn’t the first to pass laws regulating abortions like this. But it does have arguably the strongest laws. According to USA Today, at least 22 states have bills to increase counseling or waiting periods prior to abortions, and 18 states have bills to expand the use of ultrasound. Earlier this month, Nebraska’s governor signed into effect a law banning most abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the argument that the fetus is capable of feeling pain.

 

It’s exciting to see so much of our country implementing some common sense and watching out for the voiceless in society. And it’s exciting to see governments actually representing their people’s opinions on something.

 

A Gallup poll released in May 2009 reported that 51 percent of Americans described themselves as “pro-life,” while 42 percent of Americans described themselves as “pro-choice.”

 

Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely that any restrictions on abortion will be passed in the liberal state we know as California. But maybe, just maybe, there is hope.

 

 

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/27/oklahoma.abortion/index.html

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/us/28abortion.html

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-04-26-abortionbill_N.htm

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/05/15/gallup-more-americans-oppose-abortion-rights/tab/article/

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/quotes