Panel rejects bill to classify abortion as homicide
An Oklahoma Senate panel unanimously rejected a bill that would classify abortion as homicide.
However, the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday advanced several other bills that could limit or restrict abortions in Oklahoma.
“Any legitimate attempt to save the lives of the unborn will always have my full support," Senate Pro T em Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, said in a statement. "We cannot be distracted by attempts to delegitimize the drive to advance the cause of life. All lives are precious, have inn ate worth, and should be protected and respected at all stages. These measures are practical steps that have a real chance to save lives."
Ina rare bi partisan vote, Republican and Democratic members of the committee united to reject Senate Bill 495 from freshman Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain.
The bill sought to prohibit all abortion sin Oklahoma, regardless of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the practice.
“The purpose of this act is to ensure the right to life and equal protection of
laws to all unborn children from the moment of fertilization,” Hamilton said. The newly elected senator counts himself among those who aim to abolish abortion entirely — a more conservative faction of the anti-abortion movement.
So-called“abolitionists” have filed similar legislation in recent years, but the bills were never heard in committee because of opposition from Republican leadership in the Senate. Even an endorsement of SB 495 f rom Oklahoma Republican Chairman David McLain couldn't help the bill pass out of committee this time around.
Supporters of the bill yelled at Chairman Sen. GregMc Cortney and other members of the committee as they exited the meeting room at the
state Capitol.
The committee passed five other anti-abortion bills on party-line votes.
In a question to the author of one bill, Sen. George Young, D-Oklahoma City, argued the government shouldn't tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies.
“Are you equating her with a criminal for being willing to want to have a choice about what she does in her own body?” Young asked.
Republican members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee passed the following bills that will advance to the full Senate:
•Senate Bill 918, by Treat, who leads the state Senate, would allow the state to prohibit abortion in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Senate Bill 612, by Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, would prohibit abortions except for those medical ly necessary to save them other' s life. Democrats argued the bill is unconstitutional and the state would waste time and money defending the measure in court.
• Senate Bil l 5 84, by Dahm, would prevent public funds going to entities that" traffic" fetal tissue. Democrats expressed concerns the bill could harm woman's reproductive health centers and abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood.
•Senate Bill 778, by Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, would add restrictions to medication-induced abortions, in which a woman early on in her pregnancy takes certain pills to induce an abortion.
• Senate Bil l 779, by Daniels, would require additional state oversight of abortion-inducing drugs and would prevent such medications from being delivered via t he mail.