How much more time is going to be spent in the Oklahoma Legislature on abortion bills when Oklahoma has pressing needs to debate like fixing the State Capitol from crumbling, the infrasture that is failing across Oklahoma, or our education system so that a student in rural Oklahoma receives the same high quality education as the larger school districts. When are legislators going to be willing to bite the bullet and consolidate some of these small school districts and quit worrying if they will get reelected as they need to do the right thing. Instead once again abortion is front and center in the legislature in a state with some of the toughest laws against abortion on the books.
It is a waste of our tax dollars as the decision should be between the woman and her doctor not the legislature when the procedure is legal across this Country. Guess they missed the part that abortions are dropping. Will someone explain to me how a Party that is so dead set against abortion for any reason is also against contraceptives. What am I missing? Never has made any sense.
February 13, 2014
By SEAN MURPHY
OKLAHOMA CITY — Two measures to further restrict abortion in Oklahoma easily cleared a House committee on Tuesday over the objection of outnumbered Democrats who argue the bills are unnecessary.
The first bill that the House Public Safety Committee approved would require abortion providers to have clinical privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their practice, while the second would restrict the use of abortion-inducing drugs. Both measures head to the full House.
The bills are among several anti-abortion measures that have been introduced this year in Oklahoma’s Republican-controlled Legislature, which has become a testing ground for some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
Rep. Mike Ritze, an osteopathic physician, said his clinical privileges bill is identical to one approved in Texas and is designed to provide a safety mechanism for women who may develop complications as the result of an abortion.
“It’s a safety issue. A person can hemorrhage to death very quickly,” said Ritze, R-Broken Arrow. “If you’re dealing with minutes to save somebody ... you better have a backup plan in place.”
Oklahoma already has a law that requires doctors to either have privileges or an agreement with a local doctor with privileges, prompting the head of Oklahoma’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union to question the need for Ritze’s measure.
Read More at the McAlester News-CapitalIs Rep Ritze (R) grandstanding hoping to run for higher office as his bill makes no sense. Tired of these males being the judge and jury when it comes to women's health. This state is regressing not moving forward. There is one Republican lawmaker with Common Sense which is rare to find in Oklahoma today:
Not every lawmaker in Oklahoma is pleased with the state’s constant quest to limit women’s access to reproductive health care, however. Last year, state Rep. Doug Cox (R) — who’s a practicing physician — admonished his fellow Republicans for waging a war on abortion and contraception. “What happened to the Republican Party that I joined?” Cox lamented in an op-ed. “What happened to the Republican Party that felt that the government has no business being in an exam room, standing between me and my patient? Where did the party go that felt some decisions in a woman’s life should be made not by legislators and government, but rather by the women, her conscience, her doctor and her God?”Maybe someone can explain to me why Oklahoma is emulating Texas. Must not be Sooner fans because the last thing they would want to do is be like Texas in anything. This is just dumb to copy a state that has been on the attack against women's rights by the white GOP male dominated State Government of Texas. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott who is running for Texas Governor is one of the leaders of the War on Women in Texas. Abbott is opposed by Democrat Wendy Davis who polls close to Abbot almost across the board. Could Davis flip Texas Blue? It could happen with the neanderthal GOP and some of their male candidates in Texas where all common sense has been thrown out the window.
Oklahoma Considers Enacting Texas-Style Abortion Restrictions
BY TARA CULP-RESSLER ON FEBRUARY 12, 2014 AT 10:30 AM
Oklahoma lawmakers are currently advancing two measures intended to restrict abortion access even further in a state that already makes it incredibly difficult to end a pregnancy. On Tuesday, a House committee approved a harsh abortion restriction that’s directly modeled after a new law in Texas that has forced dozens of clinics to close in the Lone Star State.
One of the proposed measures would require abortion providers in Oklahoma to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their practice. Essentially, doctors would need to enter into a partnership with a local hospital, just in case one of their patients experiences serious complications from an abortion procedure and needs to be transferred there — even though the rate of complications from abortion that are serious enough to require hospitalization is estimated at just 0.5 percent.
This type of unnecessary state law is known as the “targeted regulation of abortion providers,” or TRAP. Oklahoma actually already has an existing TRAP law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges. It just doesn’t specify that the hospitals in question must be within a 30-mile radius.
The state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is skeptical that it’s really necessary to enact additional legislation in this area. “We’re being given a rationale that’s grounded in providing a safe atmosphere for Oklahoma’s women, but at the end of the day that’s just smoke and mirrors,” the director of Oklahoma’s ACLU, Ryan Kiesel, noted.
Read More at Think ProgressThen there is the new Ohio law. Shocked some Oklahoma legislator didn't file a bill like that for Oklahoma. Maybe they did and I missed it since this was enacted last year in Ohio my home state which is getting just as hard right as Oklahoma. Never thought I would see that happen.
Ohio’s New Abortion Ban Forces Women To Continue Doomed Pregnancies Against Their Doctors’ Wishes
BY TARA CULP-RESSLER ON FEBRUARY 11, 2014 AT 11:48 AM
Thanks to harsh new abortion restrictions in place in Ohio, doctors are warning that they can’t provide the best care for their patients — and sometimes, women are being forced to carry nonviable fetuses to term against the recommendations of medical professionals.
Last year, Ohio enacted several new laws that further regulate the way that doctors are allowed to practice. Abortion doctors are now required to obtain transfer agreements with local hospitals, an unnecessary requirement that is forcing clinics out of business. And doctors are prohibited from performing abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy unless the fetus is nonviable; by 24 weeks, abortion is outlawed altogether.
Since the new law doesn’t adequately distinguish between elective abortions and medically necessary abortions, doctors warn that it’s forcing them to withhold critical health services from their patients. Sometimes, serious fetal abnormalities aren’t evident until women are past the legal limit for termination. Thanks to Ohio’s new law, however, doctors’ hands are tied when they encounter those situations.
Dr. Jason Melillo, an OB-GYN who does not perform elective abortions because he is religiously opposed to the procedure, told the Columbus Dispatch that he will still refer patients to abortion services if it’s medically necessary. For instance, he had a recent patient who discovered that her fetus had a fatal chromosome condition, and he recommended that she should terminate to avoid the risk of future complications. But it was too late.
“By this point she was 27 weeks. The doctors were saying they can’t do it. There wasn’t even a medical debate about it. Everyone agreed she shouldn’t deliver but were afraid they would run afoul of this law,” Melillo explained. “What if she gets a blood clot? What if she needs a cesarean section? Now you’re putting this woman through risky medical procedures for no good reason.”
“Nobody likes to end a pregnancy for a fetal problem. But it’s worse to leave a patient without medical care because doctors are afraid of violating the law,” he continued.
Later abortion procedures are very rare, but they often occur in the most heartbreaking of circumstances: Wanted pregnancies that end up going terribly wrong. In states that have enacted bans on later abortions without adequate health exceptions, doctors have repeatedly warned that cutting off access to medically necessary abortions could end up forcing women to carry nonviable pregnancies to term, risking their health and their emotional well being. These type of later-term abortion bans also disproportionately harm young, low-income women.
Read More at Think ProgressWhat is going on with all these abortion bills in the states? Is this coming out of ALEC?
Kansas House approves bill to tweak state's abortion law
KMBC Kansas City - 2 days ago
South Dakota Bill Could Ban Abortion as Early as Seven WeeksSome of these are the same males that do not want an exception for life of the mother, incest, or rape. How can you make a woman who has been raped carry that child to full term and relive it every day -- most women could not handle it.
RH Reality Check - 1 day ago
Anti-abortion all-stars. Federal lawmakers made news last year when an all-male House committee convened a hearing on abortion (twice). Male legislators dominate in proposing anti-abortion bills in the states, too. Of the 330 state lawmakers to sponsor such measures last year, 257—more than 75 percent—were men. Seventy-three were women. (According to the National Conference of State Legislators, about 75 percent of state lawmakers in 2013 were male.) About 1 in every 25 female legislators, and 1 in every 20 male legislators, sponsored an anti-abortion bill. The vast majority of the sponsors, 310 in all, were Republicans; 20 were Democrats.The War on Women continues by the Republican dominated legislatures and House of Representatives. Time to return Common Sense to this Country and throw out the social conservatives. For a Party that wants smaller government, they sure do pass a lot of laws trying to regulate how a person handles their health or their lives. Personally don't think it is my business to tell another woman what she should do -- don't walk in their shoes and until someone does, then they have no business dictating. Very sick and tired of the GOP and the hard right social engineering. Will voters finally wake up to how much of our tax dollars are being wasted on the hard right's demand that only their agenda be followed. Enough is enough -- vote them out in 2014!
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