Controversial Heartbeat Abortion Bill Passes Oklahoma Senate

The Oklahoma senate passed a bill on Tuesday requiring that doctors tell pregnant women seeking an abortion that they have the right to hear the fetus’s heartbeat before terminating the pregnancy.

The bill, called The Heartbeat Informed Consent Act, was passed by a 34-8 vote and will soon move to the Oklahoma House, where pro-life Republicans outnumber Democrats by a 2-1 margin. Passage is expected there as well. The original bill would have removed the heartbeat option, requiring that mothers seeking abortions listen to the heartbeat before they make their decision, but after some watering down, doctors are only now required to tell these women that listening to the heartbeat is merely an option.

Critics called the bill a measure to pull the heartstrings of a pregnant woman, ultimately coercing her into choosing not to abort the pregnancy. Senator Judy Eason McIntyre, a critic of the bill, warned that bill supporters will pay the price in upcoming elections: “When you think about who works the hardest in campaigns and churches, they are women,” she said. She also criticized the bill for over-reaching into the private decisions of individuals, thus infringing on their rights.”If they chose to have an abortion, it is not for you to decide, not for you to throw your moral values on someone else,” she said. “These are, again, adults.”

On the other side, “Women should be fully informed and understand the repercussions of their actions,” according to the bill’s sponsor. “A heartbeat is life. Without a heartbeat, you cannot live.”

There are also water-cooler rumors that one female lawmaker attempted and failed to get an amendment passed that would regulate the number of vasectomies performed. The exact wording is as thus: “It is the purpose of the Legislature to assert an invasive state interest in the reproductive habits of men in this state and substitute the will of the government over the will of adult men.”

Yikes!

Government intrusion, AKA the government telling you what to do with your life/health/well-being – right or wrong in this case?