Oklahoma Abortion Bills Signed Into Law By Governor Mary Fallin

OKLAHOMA CITY — Republican Gov. Mary Fallin has signed a pair of bills intended to further restrict abortion in Oklahoma.

Fallin on Wednesday signed a bill that makes it a felony for doctors to perform abortions after a woman reaches 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" presumes a fetus can experience pain after 20 weeks. It includes an exemption for abortions performed when the life of the mother is at risk or if there is a risk of physical impairment of a "major bodily function."

Jordan Goldberg, a spokeswoman for New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, says the measure is a "very intrusive, extreme law."

The second bill prohibits health insurance plans in Oklahoma offered under the new federal health care law from offering coverage for elective abortions.

Comments

[Seven Teenatheart]

01:03 AM on 04/23/2011

“The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
Ayn Rand

Or in this case, women...
Abortion over 20 weeks is primarily for medical reasons. But now Dr.'s who perform it for medical reasons in Oklahoma will always be wondering if the justification is "enough" to keep themselves out of jail - and this is likely to end up being at the expense of the patient's health or even life.

[Seven Teenatheart]

12:07 AM on 04/23/2011

"The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence."
Elbert Hubbard

Ignorance: For those who don't know or haven't read up on it, abortions after 20 weeks are exceedingly rare and are almost always done for medical reasons.

Superstition: There was no crisis where callous women were waiting 5 months to abort. Get a grip please, this is a manufactured issue. Do read up on the medical risks for the mother while you're at it too (please).

Incompetence: When a politician wants to pander to extremists rather than do their job, this is a prime example of what happens.

Some suggested light reading:
http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/postionpapers/22-Late-term-Abortions.PDF

[Seven Teenatheart]

05:07 PM on 04/22/2011

Interesting statistics: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
Around 1.5% of abortions in the US are after 20 weeks.
Take a peek at the "When Women Have Abortions" section.

Now, please read this study from Canada on the reasons why women have late term abortions: http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/postionpapers/22-Late-term-Abortions.PDF

Does this really look like women using late term abortions (after 20 weeks) as birth control to you?
The after 20 week issue and bill that was recently passed in Oklahoma are PROPAGANDA, to reduce abortion rights.
And their end result will not be to save lives, but to traumatize women who DIDN'T WANT AN ABORTION IN THE FIRST PLACE. It will put them in the position of proving that they must have the procedure, when they're traumatized enough already.
And why?
For politics and because supporters of this bill didn't care enough to do proper research before jumping on the bandwagon.

It's absolutely shameful.

[cactusblossom]

10:35 AM on 04/22/2011

It's not so hard to be in control of your body enough to:
1. Use birth control
2. Know when you have had unprotected sex
3. know when you've become pregnant
4. Take care of yourself in a timely manner
Still, too bad Politicians are so concerned with women and the choices we make for ourselves when we don't have enough resources to go round as it is. An unwanted child is a sadder thing than abortion. These Politics do nothing to help the unwanted and abused children these BS laws will create.

[Seven Teenatheart]

05:15 PM on 04/22/2011

So, who do you think you are lecturing about this?
Post 20 week abortions are typically done for medical reasons. The story the people on this thread seem to be swallowing is a made up construct.
Do your own research please.

Here's a paper that I found to be a pretty good read: http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/postionpapers/22-Late-term-Abortions.PDF

[bpd9227]

09:55 AM on 04/22/2011

How about this. Everyone just do whatever you feel like doing without anyone else even criticizing your decision. But it has to go both ways. You can't say you want the right to abort your baby and at the same time demand others stop doing drugs or smoke or own guns or have homosexual relationships (hell, I do!) or not home school, or practice any religion no matter how psychotic (we all know which one wins that award presently). There should be no borders, anywhere. Everyone should come and go as they please. No property. You want something? Take it! Feel like giving? Sure, why not? Got pregnant and feel ill-equipped to raise the kid? Get rid of it. Nobody's business. Your neighbor getting on your nerves and you feel ill-equipped to deal with them? Get rid of them. Nobody's business. Nothing matters. No one elses opinion matters. Only YOU matter. You have the right to true individual freedom. But you shouldn't expect anyone who disagrees with you to help you in any way. You're on your own because you know what's best for you and your stuff.

[lisalulu]

04:59 PM on 04/22/2011

How about not? How about giving women respect and privacy. Period.

[Stephanie Wills]

07:33 AM on 04/22/2011

I understand if a woman has an abortion for a non medical reasons it not being covered by insurance but, in the cases where it is for a medical reason, it should be covered.
Don't most insurances cover viagra?
There is something seriously wrong with our priorities

[Stephanie Wills]

07:29 AM on 04/22/2011

I understand it is a women's right but, just like freedom of speech, religion, our right to protest, and every other right we have, there has to be limitations.
Some of you are waayyyy too much to the left on this issue and think a woman should be able to abort at ANYTIME during her pregnancy even if it's not for medical reasons.
Yes accidents happen, we have all done it, I know I have. But, just like with every mistake that we make, we have to all deal with the consequences of that mistake. It's called personal responisibilty.
I am not saying a woman shouldn't have the right to abortion, I am all for pro choice. But my god, why would you wait!? Of course there are woman who don't find out till later but I am not talking about them.
And I defy any woman who has children to say that at five months what was inside of them was not a baby.

[pattio66]

05:01 PM on 04/22/2011

How many 8-month pregnant women do YOU know who waddled by the abortion clinic and said "oh yeah, there's something I've been meaning to do?" Fact is, late-term abortion is risky and only performed in extreme cases of severe birth defects where the baby wouldn't survive anyway or in cases where the mother's life is threatened by carrying to term. Dr. George Till was one of the few providers of late-term abortions IN THE COUNTRY and was shot dead at his church for it. The notion that women would carry a pregnancy to the third trimester and only then decide to terminate is not only false, but insulting. Stop perpetuating the myth.

[Seven Teenatheart]

05:14 PM on 04/22/2011

You left out one very important thing. Abortions after 5 months aren't commonly done for anything but a medical issue.
And it's only those women who have to prove medical issues who are likely to suffer from this bill.

Gently put, it's important to educate yourself carefully before weighing in. Abortions after 20 weeks are what, 1.5% of all abortions done in the US?
Here's an informative article from Canada, too, where they don't restrict abortion and don't see non-essential abortions happening after 20 weeks for frivolous reasons.

http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/postionpapers/22-Late-term-Abortions.PDF

[jbslpn]

10:36 PM on 04/21/2011

Hello! 20 weeks is 5 months. I have a cousin who was born prematurely @ 5 months. Back in the 1950s! He is 6'4" over 200 lbs. and NEVER had any health issues. Elective abortion after 18 or 20 weeks is not the termination af a pregnancy... it is infanticide, the murder of a helpless infant.

[cwebster]

12:57 AM on 04/22/2011

Bull. There has never been a 20 week old foetus that survived. It would not be developed enough to live. My girlfriend was born in 1959 and was 6 months. She weighed less than a pound, and spent her first year in an incubator, and her lungs never properly developed...she has had breathing trouble all her life. I suspect they got the dates wrong, and it was more like 6 months.

[Stephanie Wills]

07:34 AM on 04/22/2011

Yea, that can't be right.
A baby surviving at 5 months in the 50's?
I would need to see proof to believe that.

[Erick Robertson]

09:01 AM on 04/22/2011

This is exactly why it's a great cutoff point. There has never been a 20 week old fetus that has survived. There also hasn't been a 21 week old fetus that survived. It has happened at 22 weeks, though. So it's a pretty solid statement to say, up until 20 weeks, the baby cannot survive outside of the womb.

[pattio66]

05:03 PM on 04/22/2011

that's a lie.

[jbslpn]

07:41 PM on 04/22/2011

No.. It's not a lie.

[Demgirls]

10:28 PM on 04/21/2011

Oh, bet the insurance companies love Mary. No coverage for elective abortions, there's a new loaded term on the scene. Now we have to justify necessary or unnecessary according to her guidelines.

[mflmarlton]

09:42 PM on 04/21/2011

I can never understand how any male would presume to tell a women what to do with their own body. What if they make a law that if the woman decides not to have children she can legally force her husband to under go a vascectomy­. Or sex is only allowed when the women desires to get pregnant. Or a law that says sex out of wedlock is illegal. Or any other damn law that takes away the right of an American in their "pursuit of happiness"­. This all boils down to zealots and their belief of when life starts. Then force their beliefs on everyone else. Its not easy being an American. That which one abhors must be defended to the death for the sanctity of the document that gives everyone the rights they hold dear. It's a slippery slope if you dare to deny another persons right to chose whats right for them. Your rights will be next.

[aztrukin]

12:22 AM on 04/22/2011

I can never understand why a woman would require a man to help fund her abortion via taxes. Not saying you would but the welfare system in one way or another does. My daughter attends ASU and is billed for medical services although we do not use them but they help pay for abortions. Remember, this is about freedom of choice and I respect your freedom to choose, please repspect my freedom to choose not to pay for it. I have also wondered how you decide if the man wants the child and will raise them on their own without payment from the mother, does he have a choice and If the mother wants the child and the father does not, vice versa?

[cwebster]

12:58 AM on 04/22/2011

If the man wants the child, and the woman consents to carry it fine. If he wants the child and she doesn't want to carry it...no. Her life is at risk, not his.

[merr7242]

05:02 AM on 04/22/2011

There is a federal law on the books already that prevents federal funds from funding abortion. In AZ, they have their own law - just in case they secede from the Union I guess - that prevents taxpayer money from funding abortion in AZ. Maybe you haven't been keeping up on the recent news. I don't even live in AZ but when Jan Brewer's name comes up in the news I pay attention because she is so radical.

[James Adam Carrington]

09:39 PM on 04/21/2011

Sure do; the more important question is, do YOU?

[nivrammot1]

08:50 PM on 04/21/2011

So what part of small government & personal responsibility does this fall under? Remember how the Republicans/ Teaparty ran on that?

[Jeffin90019]

07:42 PM on 04/21/2011

When I was in college I knew two women who used abortion as their preferred method of birth control. (One didn't like the side effects of the Pill; the other could never remember to take the Pill.) They scheduled their abortions like mani/pedis. Between them, to my direct knowledge, those two women aborted 11 babies. But I can't go with the punitive play/pay dynamic.

[ShakeYourComplacency]

07:55 PM on 04/21/2011

This poster comes on here, is insulting to women, tells me that as a woman my body doesn't belong to me, and hates his own mother for gods sake....and I respond to him and tell him how ridiculous that is and why he sounds like a troll, and my post gets deleted? I guess that's the new Huffpo rule. You can go on an abortion thread and casually say why women don't deserve rights, and it's ok. But anyone responds and it's not ok. It's like going on a thread about Obama's monkey picture and casually asking...gee, he kinda does look like that, I see nothing wrong with the picture....and wait for the board to explode. Thanks mods!

[ShakeYourComplacency]

07:28 PM on 04/21/2011

Thank God for women and minorities, eh? Without them, Republicans would have no platform. They don't have a good healthcare/good jobs/good education platform - they have a no birth control, no abortion, no single mom, no mexican, no darwin, platform. Without scapegoats to rile up the base, what else would they do? Without making arcane laws, like "prove you were raped" and "show your passport to a policeman" laws, what on earth ELSE would they do?

[unit1inmn]

07:51 PM on 04/21/2011

"Politicians are the only people who create problems then campaign against them." 545 vs. 300,000,000 People -By Charlie Reese
They will tell you they are on your side then give tax breaks to the rich and corporations because they are both good for us. Then they will cut your wage and raise your property taxes, attack public education, public radio, and other things the average americans were counting on or enjoying. They will not raise taxes but will take everything from you. I call that a theif they call it democracy.

[merr7242]

05:08 AM on 04/22/2011

Democracy is a double edged sword. We are told that we are lucky to be living in a free society but, will someone explain to me how we are really free?

Another thing that is so disconcerting is that we can't trust the politicians to do what they campaign on. They all LIE.

[usmcqtco]

08:14 PM on 04/21/2011

Without women and minorities the REPUBLICANS wouldn't have a platform? Good grief, woman, what do you think the DEMOCRAT platform is all about? Nothing but redistributing Someone Else's Money to its favored women and minority groups!

[dlnrjm]

12:03 PM on 04/22/2011

Spare me! Where do you get that idea?

[wilkesgm]

07:11 PM on 04/21/2011

The reason they are fighting this law is that they want no restrictions on when they can whack a fetus and they want the government to pay for it. (Look up partial birth abortion if you want to see the reality behind this movement) Look, if someone in Oklahoma wants to abort their fetus at 8 mos, all they have to do is get a flight to NY and back. Why not have the pro-abortion groups fund this stuff instead of taxpayers, many of whom are morally opposed to abortion. The result is the same. The states that allow abortion on demand can increase their tourist trade. Everybody wins - except the 5 mos. old "fetus."

[Bonsailady]

08:52 PM on 04/21/2011

How do you spell "slime"? Cuz there's certainly a few here ,probably iwfe or girlfriend beaters!!

[cwebster]

09:25 PM on 04/21/2011

Do not be so ridiculously absurd. No-one wants to abort at 8 months. The point is that this is totally unnecessary legislation, aimed at intimidating doctors.
Most abortions (more than 98.5%) take place in the first 21 weeks. The legal ones that are done at a later date are usually to save the life of the woman, or to remove a dead or non-viable foetus. How can you object to that?