OK: Considers Database To Track Pregnant People, Anti-Abortion Bills GOP Gov. Promised To Sign

- HuffPost, Feb. 10, 2022. 'Oklahoma Considers Database For Pregnant People As Roe Hangs In The Balance.' Ed. - Conservative lawmakers have proposed a raft of extreme bills, which the governor has already promised to sign.'

The Oklahoma Legislature started its 2022 session this week with a slew of anti-abortion bills, which isn’t uncommon. “This is my 12th year in the legislature now, and it feels like every year we go through this,” said Oklahoma House Minority Leader Emily Virgin (D). But this year’s anti-abortion bills- 11 were pre-filed before the legislative session even began- bring fresh menace. The state’s Republican governor has already promised that he would sign any abortion restriction the Oklahoma Legislature sends his way.

Moreover, some bills, which clearly go beyond what’s allowed by Roe v. Wade and normally would immediately get bogged down in the court system, could actually become law given the looming U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which could upend 5 decades of abortion rights. And the bills coming to the floor range from extreme to downright dystopian, including one that would create a state-run database of some pregnant people in the state.

“[W]e have absolutely seen the bills get more and more extreme,” said Virgin. “That’s due to the national landscape and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court. I think the anti-abortion movement has been strengthened and emboldened by that. And with our current governor, it’s pretty likely that he’ll sign any anti-abortion bill that makes it to his desk.” Last year alone, Oklahoma passed a 6-week abortion ban, a “trigger” ban if the high court rules against Roe v. Wade, a total ban and restrictions on medication abortion and other measures restricting reproductive rights (almost all have been blocked in lower courts).

The 2022 pre-filed bills include two six-week abortion bans and a total ban with similar enforcement mechanisms to Texas’ draconian restriction that deputizes private citizens to sue to enforce the law. Other proposed measures give personhood status to fetuses, ban abortion at 30 days and add a constitutional amendment declaring Oklahoma does not protect the right to abortion...

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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oklahoma-considers-database-for-pregnant-people-as-roe-hangs-in-the-balance_n_61fc17dee4b0725faac6d865