These are dark days at the Oklahoma state legislature. With a variety of bills, our representatives and senators are stripping away women’s Pro-Choice freedoms and chipping away at doctors’ ability to provide quality health care to women.
As a husband, a son, a father of a daughter, an uncle of nieces and a brother of a sister, words alone cannot express my frustration. If the bills currently working through our legislature become law, the result will affect not only the health and welfare of women, but possibly their lives.
HB1402 requires medical facilities where an abortion was performed after 20 weeks gestation to report the reason for the procedure to the State Department of Health and for records of the procedure to be kept for five years. This alone represents an unnecessary intrusion of government into a highly personal decision.
What makes this bill worse is that it opens the door for the facility where the abortion was performed to be punished, based upon the estimated age of the fetus. If the woman is married, her husband can bring charges; in addition, the woman’s parents can bring charges. The facility could lose its license, in addition to state funding.
Whether or not to have an abortion is the woman’s choice. Her husband or parents should not have the right to bring charges against the facility where the procedure occurred, simply because they disagree with the choice. If a health clinic loses its license or state funding, then all of the women who could receive quality medical care from that facility would suffer.
Another bill is HB1888, which has already passed the House and is currently making its way through the Senate. According to this bill, if the probable age of the fetus is 20 weeks or more, a physician is only allowed to perform an abortion to save the mother’s life or prevent major injury. The physician is not to consider the woman’s psychological state or the result of the procedure upon her psychological welfare when determining whether or not to perform the abortion. (Of note, when debating abortion, Jewish Law considers BOTH the woman’s physical AND psychological welfare.)
In addition, this bill requires the physician to make every effort not to terminate the pregnancy, but conduct a delivery, regardless of the affect upon the woman’s psychological welfare. And anyone can take legal action against the physician who performs any procedure in violation of the requirements of this bill.
Lastly, a report of the procedure must be filed with the Department of Health.
If this bill passes the Senate, it will arguably decrease the likelihood that OBGYN doctors would want to continue to practice medicine in Oklahoma or set up a practice in Oklahoma; the result would adversely affect the quality of care available to women in our state.
A third bill is SB547. It concerns the connection between the recent federal health care overhaul and the setting up of “exchanges.” This bill would prohibit an “elective abortion” from being covered in the exchange. To cover the abortion, a separate premium would have to be paid.
How exactly is “elective abortion” defined? What if the woman cannot afford the procedure? What if her welfare is threatened by the pregnancy?
In relation with these “exchanges,” many claim that they do not want their taxes to fund medical procedures they find immoral. This is a fallacious argument. We cannot pick and choose how the government uses our taxes. I could list a number of government programs I oppose or find immoral, but that does not mean I have the power to force the state or federal government to comply with my wishes.
Rather than passing bills which restrict a woman’s right to choose and increase the likelihood physicians will be legally prosecuted for performing medical procedures, our legislature should work to ensure women’s health care in general: sex education, wellness, family planning and pre-natal care.
Such efforts would be moral and in keeping with the best interests of women of all ages.
Let’s always remember that behind every bill and every piece of legislation is a face: If we look carefully, we will see our mother, wife, daughter, sister or niece.
Please contact your legislator and express your opposition to these bills currently working their way through the legislature.
It is interesting that the same legislators who are suing the federal government for intruding into healthcare are now being far more intrusive. I guess government should only stay out of men’s medical care but it is fine to dictate women’s healthcare.
Well spoken! Rabbi is 100% correct in his concerns and assessment!