Oklahomans rally at State Capitol to protest anti-choice law that would post abortion details online.
Oklahomans rally at State Capitol to protest anti-choice law that would post abortion details online.
Oklahoma recently passed a law (HR 1595) that will collect personal details about every single abortion performed in the state and post them on a public website. Critics of the legislation worry that the information could be used to identify individuals. Portions of the law were supposed to take effect on Nov. 1, but a judge delayed activation pending the outcome of a legal challenge. On Friday, approximately 100 people gathered at the State Capitol in Oklahoma to protest HR 1595, in an attempt to better inform Oklahoma residents about what’s going on:
Shagah Zakerion, one of the organizers of the rally to protest House Bill 1595, said many of her fellow students at the University of Oklahoma were unaware the measure had passed until it drew criticism in the national media.
“We didn’t even know the bill was going through our Legislature let alone that it had already passed,” said Zakerion, a senior from Tulsa, before the rally, which attracted about 100 people. “We need to stop this stuff before it turns into law, and we need to build a coalition of Oklahomans that are not only for reproductive justice but also for progressive issues.
“There are people here, and there are youth here who aren’t going to sit back and let legislation like this get passed again,” she said.
In an interview with ThinkProgress, Oklahoma state Rep. Jeannie McDaniel (D), an outspoken opponent of the legislation, lamented the anti-woman atmosphere in the state legislature. “Each of the successive five years, there has been a bill introduced in the Oklahoma legislature regarding women’s reproductive rights,” she said, adding, “Each year, it creeps a little more toward taking away women’s freedoms, more restrictions between the doctors.”
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A demonstration! What a novel idea!
November 9th, 2009 at 9:59 amWomen have to step up and fight for their rights. These SOBs will try everything they can to sneak this crap through. Just like the elections in Maine. The anti-gay groups purposely waited for an off election year to put controversal props on the ballots. Young people have to vote. If they don’t, all the freedoms the people before them fought for, will be gone.
November 9th, 2009 at 9:59 amI have a suggestion: Amend the bill. Replace “abortion” with “men convicted of soliciting prostitution.” (and, yes, I’m being deliberately sexist here)
November 9th, 2009 at 10:00 amAs a pharmacist, I CAN NOT give out any information to the public regarding a patient’s medical profile, or be in violation of HIPPA which could result in revoking of my license, and even possible jail time.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:02 amWouldn’t this be the same situation here???
the rally, which attracted about 100 people
So, by Republican math, there were actually eleventy billion people at the rally!
November 9th, 2009 at 10:03 amFar too many folks who are pro-choice will still vote for repiggies for whatever their own strange reasons.
Bills such as this are the result of such voting.
No matter how strong you think the repiggies are on business or defense (and the Bush/Cheney era disproved that royally), this is the sort of crap that the repiggies enjoy – the suppression of women, non-whites, non-holy rollers and gays.
That is all you can expect from the repiggies these days.
So why waste a vote on them?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:03 amListen up, women of Oklahoma: The government wants to put a bureaucrat between you and your doctor. They want to ration your care and make medical decisions for you.
This law really is one step away from mandating that women who have an abortion get a scarlet “A” tattooed on their forehead.
Why not create a similar database for people who buy guns, whiskey, cigarettes, and Viagra? All can potential kill; let’s round ‘em up!
November 9th, 2009 at 10:03 amOklahoma wants to pursue a Scarlett letter law? Huh.. gee .:
November 9th, 2009 at 10:04 amLadies, time to migrate out of ignorant controlling states, come north or costal, unless barefoot and pregnant under the thumb of a man and church is your choice.
Oklahoma is in conservative “christian” land. The same laws that allow a pharmacist to refuse to dispense birth control presumeably don’t work in reverse and would mandate the posting of said information.
More hypocrisy from the “freedom loving heartland”.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:06 amI feel perfectly justified as a taxpayer to demand a similar website on medical procedures performed on congress critters, for whatever reasons.
How many of those creeps are bleeding us empty for every little medical procedure available?
How many congress critters are getting plastic surgery at our expense?
I want answers as to how my tax money is being spent on those bums.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:06 amOnly 100 Oklahomans?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:07 amWow. Youda thunk there’d be more people pissed about this…
But then again, it is Oklahoma, represented by the likes of Inhofe and Coburn.
ray@5, LOL! You beat me too it. I was thinking the same thing. I have to ask myself, why wasn’t MSM covering this? I mean, they cover a so-called Grass roots demostrations, but this somehow fell through the cracks? Remember Faux’s coverage of the Gay Rights rally? Oh, that’s right. They didn’t even cover it. Like Jon Stewart said, “Gay people aren’t vampires. They will show up on film.”
November 9th, 2009 at 10:08 amDid Randall Terry badger the state legistators for this law?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:10 amHouse Bill 1595? When did they start naming bills after the year the ideology is based in?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:16 amwe’ve safely established that abortion is a legitimate procedure, so like DRxJ said, it should be covered by HIPPA, which makes this website patently illegal since the 70’s. It’s illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional to post information about women like that.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:17 amChristianity originated in the Middle East where the culture is very misogynistic. As a result, it’s still a misogynistic religion in general, which leads to these sorts of anti-woman policies in the most conservatively religious states in the union.
No wonder the fastest growing religious group in the United States is ‘no religion’….
November 9th, 2009 at 10:26 amIt’s time we stopped calling them pro-life and used anti-choice. That’s what they really are.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:30 amWhat? No “Hands off my vagina!” posters?
These folks really need to take a lesson in effective messaging.
( sorry, I’m making light of this serious issue)
November 9th, 2009 at 10:33 amOf which I am a proud adherent. Abortion is not pleasant. It’s not pleasant to think about (or, i’m guessing, to experience). But it’s ultimately a personal decision.
Religion is much the same.
If you have a deeply held moral or spiritual conviction, if you feel happiness and joy from these convictions, if your spirituality makes you feel complete…amen. More power to you. Religion makes for a lousy basis for legislation. The laws that are supposedly based on the Ten Commandments are pretty much common sense: don’t kill, don’t steal.
No self-respecting spiritual person could support the Oklahoma law.
Which explains why so many conservative “christians” are backing it.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:38 am5th Estate says:
November 9th, 2009 at 10:39 am@18
A little levity never hurt anything. But yeah, it is a serious issue, and one that shouldn’t even crop up these days. This is a stupid attempt at gender discrimination and the originators of the law should be pegged as such.
Passing laws advocating the forced identification of women who had an abortion is the same damn thing as forcing jews to wear a star. It’s fascist.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:40 am5th Estate, or “You’ll steal my right to choose when you rip it from my cold, dead uterus”?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:40 amIf abortion is legal there is no reason for this legislation that I can see. A teen, of course, would require parental consent but even then I cant see a reason to collect and diseminate that information publically.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:41 amI think we need a law that reequires congress critters to take psychological tests and make that information public.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:43 amReich-wingers, please show us how this is Constitutional?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:43 amJeebus! There are some people who think straight in Oklahoma!
Maybe all is not lost — oh wait, that’s a little premature.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:44 amAfter all Inhofe and Coburn are their elected senators.
People will just travel outside the state to avoid such impractical and unreasonable big brother collection of data.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:45 amIs there any other country that makes this kind of issue out of abortion?
Sarah Palin and the other right wing nutjobs act like women are encouraged and even forced to have abotions. If that happens it by their partners and not the general public. The same people who are so worried about the government coming between people an their doctors are all for the government coming between women and their bodies or mates.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:46 amDid any of the OK legislature ever read Nathaniel Hawthorn’s, Scarlet Letter?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:47 amProlly too busy reading Old Testament scriptures.
Shayne says:
It’s time we stopped calling them pro-life and used anti-choice. That’s what they really are.
And more generally speaking anti-women as evident by the male Republican opposition to Frankens anti-gangrape amendment
November 9th, 2009 at 10:47 amRegardless of how you feel about abortion, I agree that this law would violate HIPAA laws. I’m certain the men in Oklahoma wouldn’t want their medical information shown online, even in the form that is being proposed for reporting abortions.
Is it a man’s private business if he has a vasectomy? Gets prescribed a male enhancement drug? Needs treatment for prostate problems, an STD, or any other private medical matter?
In most small towns, your business is already the whole town’s business. Why does this private information need to be shared with the world?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:58 amWhat year is it on the OkieDopey calendar?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:59 amPerhaps they should post the name of every man who purchases an erectile dysfunction drug unless he is married and as a permission slip from his wife.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:03 amMaybe I’ll start a group to get that bill passed “Up With Erectile Dysfunction” or “Down With Enhanced Erections”.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:05 amThe law’s proponents are the ones that keep saying they don’t want gov’t in our lives. They don’t want gov’t running health care, but they don’t seem to care about privacy.
At the same time, here’s this pruely religious discouragement of a legal medical procedure. Not only does the law infridge on the right to privacy, the reporting of the information is all based on the religious view of the legal prcedure. So the purpose of the law is religious persecution, which violates the 1st Amendment.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:11 amIt’s time Americans realized that it is far better to be aborted than birthed. Loving women abort their fetuses. Thomas Hardy: “The death of a child is never really to be regretted, considering how much he has escaped.”
November 9th, 2009 at 11:11 amThe Sex Offender and Drunk Driver registries opened the door. Now we can pilory any group to pretend that we are all moral.
What about nose jobs ? Don’t you wonder about your neighbor ?
The thing that galls me is that this isn’t to protect yourself. It isn’t so neighbors can provide compassion. It is clearly to give a threat that hooded figures will ride in and light a flaming cross at midnight.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:12 amAmen EnnuiDivine ;)
November 9th, 2009 at 11:26 amunbelievable: “No wonder the fastest growing religious group in the United States is ‘no religion’….”
Religion is over. Most people can’t imagine that, but it’s over. It will be a slow, painful death and people will fight it tooth and nail, but 100 years from now, religion will be an historical oddity for most people. People will wonder what was wrong with those who practiced fundamentalist religion in an age of science.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:27 amEnnuiDevine: “The laws that are supposedly based on the Ten Commandments are pretty much common sense: don’t kill, don’t steal.”
And that’s it. No other part of the commandments is encoded into our laws. And, besides, the Founders were thinking of English Common Law, not the bible, when they created our system.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:30 amThese are the same intolerant, zealot wingnuts who are spewing against the health insurance reform bill re; electronic records…saying that records should be kept private between a doctor and patient. More hypocritical actions by the zealot anti american right.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:32 amShayne says: Is there any other country that makes this kind of issue out of abortion?
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria… Just the Conservative religious ones.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:43 amI hope so NinerFan, but so did our Founders… Sigh.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:51 amNinerFan says:
Religion is over. Most people can’t imagine that, but it’s over. It will be a slow, painful death and people will fight it tooth and nail, but 100 years from now, religion will be an historical oddity for most people. People will wonder what was wrong with those who practiced fundamentalist religion in an age of science.
Yes, there is hope for humanity. I’m betting the turn away from religion will accelerate in the next few years. We may even live to see a time when that idiocy is publicly shunned and the clingers on will hide it in shame. Imagine no more obligatory blessings at the end of political speeches!
November 9th, 2009 at 12:01 pmWow. It warms my heart to see that 100 million people showed up to this protest.
Do I have that right, Batshit Bachmann?
November 9th, 2009 at 12:14 pmunbelievable: “I hope so NinerFan, but so did our Founders… Sigh.”
Right, but what we’ve learned in the last 230 years would have strengthened most of the Founders’ reserves about religion. Cognitive dissonance is at an all-time high. What’s a fundamentalist to think when he reads that we’ve found 3 to 4 hundred planets so far just in our vicinity of the galaxy. When one reads that there may be more than a million habitable planets out there, many of which have thriving ecosystems, what does that do to their world view? Some get curious, some get angry, but they all suffer from cognitive dissonance whether they know it or not.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:17 pmZooey, actually, I heard the real number was a skillion.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:22 pmRemember, women of Oklahoma, Democrats are supportive of your rights.
Remember, women of Oklahoma, Republicans don’t even think you should vote.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:57 pmNinerFan says:
Zooey, actually, I heard the real number was a skillion.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
We’re always underestimating these things, huh? It was probably a bajillion!
November 9th, 2009 at 1:07 pmBuckie Boy says:
Remember, women of Oklahoma, Republicans don’t even think you should vote.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
But the wittle babies….
November 9th, 2009 at 1:08 pmExcellent article pointing out the real danger of this bill…
There are two VERY DANGEROUS definitions written into the SRAA.
“Unborn child” means the unborn offspring of human beings, from the moment of conception, through pregnancy, and until live birth, including the human conceptus, zygote, morula, blastocyst, embryo and fetus.
“Conception” means the fertilization of the ovum of a female individual by the sperm of a male individual;
http://feministsforchoice.com/its-embryonic-personhood-people-the-real-reason-behind-oklahoma-hb-1595.htm#comments
November 9th, 2009 at 3:25 pmLynB says:
——————————————————————————–
Excellent article pointing out the real danger of this bill…
There are two VERY DANGEROUS definitions written into the SRAA.
“Unborn child” means the unborn offspring of human beings, from the moment of conception, through pregnancy, and until live birth, including the human conceptus, zygote, morula, blastocyst, embryo and fetus
Yeah, that reptilian looking lump that Docs remove is a child. How do they equate that with an actual child? These people are sick.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:50 pmAmazing how the truth keeps struggling to get out. (Double entendre intended.)
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=115476
MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
Unborn baby ‘fighting for its life’ during abortion
Ex-Planned Ex-Planned Parenthood exec talks about reasons for quitting industry
Posted: November 09, 2009
11:31 am Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
When this woman realized she was helping to kill a person, she resigned her postion with PP.
The pro-lifers are saying that ultrasounds are saying many unborn persons.
November 9th, 2009 at 8:05 pmbitbutt,
You already have zero credibility around here, and linking to World Nut Daily makes you look even more idiotic.
Dismissed.
November 9th, 2009 at 8:11 pmThe introduction of this bill’s main purpose was win political favor
from the pro-life voters, who vote in large numbers, faithfully.
Religion, in the evangelical world, has found new life through politics.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:38 pmThis was George W.’s first order of business, if you remember, when he first entered the White House.
Since 2001, fundamentalist ministers have preached partisan political policies as moral doctrine, with the the blessings of the Bush White House.
Now, with a new administration, and a president whose previous church affiliation was successfully and publicly disected and destroyed, the sheeple condemn Obama’s every word, every effort or act, as heresy.
Most all religious fanatics are now neoconservative political zealots, as well.
So, sorry to say, religion is alive, and politically possessed,
in the new Christian Taliban.
Bit you are an ignorant hateful bigot. We already KNEW you were a brainwashed moron so liking to WorldNUTdaily was just guilding the lily. STFU. Let the adults talk
November 9th, 2009 at 11:56 pmFunny how this particualr issue isn’t being brought up for the citizens of OK to vote on.
I guess it’s OK for the right-whiners to have some “judicial activist” judges and legislators as long as it supports the right-whiner agenda.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:23 am>”Zooey, actually, I heard the real number was a skillion.”
actually it was a brazillion … with a close shave and they left a little ‘hitler’ at the top.;-)
I would think HIPAA would apply here, but all these wingers do is fling legislative poo until something sticks.
If you don’t want to be a parent, chances are you shouldn’t be a parent.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:22 pmI am, Unfortunately, from the great state of Oklahoma, and I was one of the 100 that attended that protest. I am also a student at the university of Oklahoma and after reading all of these comments I felt I needed to say a few things. We aren’t taught safe sex or what the dangers of sex truly are. Our sex education consists of “you will burn in hell if your a woman and have sex, before marriage of course” and if you’re a man, by all means sleep with whomever you want because ” boys will be boys” You know a state is pathetic when it allows it’s sex education to be taught by the church. I wish this state could be more progressive on issues such as abortion, the fact is we are a lost cause. I’m getting the hell out of here as soon as I graduate!
November 12th, 2009 at 3:17 pmI’m also one of the protesters from the rally. And I agree with jesuskills (#59). Oklahoma is a great state, but it is unfortunately guided by religious nuts and the extreme right. Sex education in this state is dismal. As it stands, the state is filled with lots of conservative Christians who believe tout the beliefs that women are essentially second class citizens (they’d never say that out loud, though).
However I don’t believe Oklahoma is a lost cause. I believe that there is the potential for change in this state, no matter how it looks right now, and I believe that the more students who get involved with groups like Oklahomans for Reproductive Justice and Youth for Choice and who speak out as part of the Women’s and Gender Studies majors at campuses, the more changes we can bring about.
I’m entirely hopeful for this state, even if it is dominated by lots of Christian conservatives who lean the exact opposite direction.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:30 pm