{"id":31392,"date":"2019-04-18T05:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T10:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=31392"},"modified":"2019-04-18T14:53:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T19:53:41","slug":"anti-abortion-strategy-splits-oklahoma-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/04\/18\/anti-abortion-strategy-splits-oklahoma-lawmakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-abortion strategy splits Oklahoma lawmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_31394\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-31394\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-1-1920x1280.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-1-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-1-672x448.jpeg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-1-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-1-150x100.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-1-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-1-620x413.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-1-1620x1080.jpeg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Fortier \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anti-abortion advocates listen to speakers decry a proposed abortion trigger bill at the Oklahoma State Capitol Feb. 25, 2019. Instead, they rallied to outlaw abortion immediately, rather than waiting on the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Energized by new conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court, abortion opponents believe that the 1973<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Roe-v-Wade\"> <i>Roe v. Wade<\/i><\/a> decision that legalized abortion in the U.S. could be overturned. I<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">f that happens, the regulation of abortion returns to the states. Some state legislatures led by liberal Democrats, such as<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northcountrypublicradio.org\/news\/story\/37880\/20190123\/reproductive-health-act-now-codifies-abortion-rights-into-ny-law\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New York<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, have decided to protect the right to an abortion.<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/607598313&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=false&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/span><!--more--><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In more conservative states, such as Oklahoma, anti-abortion lawmakers are rushing to make sure their state statutes do not ensure the right to an abortion.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf <i>Roe v. Wade<\/i> ever gets overturned we won\u2019t be prepared, that\u2019s the nexus of this bill,\u201d said Republican Greg Treat, who leads the Oklahoma Senate.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treat&#8217;s legislation,<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.guttmacher.org\/state-policy\/explore\/abortion-policy-absence-roe\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> modeled after existing laws in a handful of states<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, would &#8220;trigger&#8221; a state ban on abortion and make it a felony if <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Roe<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> were overturned. Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, and South Dakota, already have trigger laws on the books.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThose bills are called trigger laws because the effective date is delayed until that court case comes down from the Supreme Court that rolls back abortion rights,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guttmacher.org\/about\/staff\/elizabeth-nash\">Elizabeth Nash<\/a>, who tracks state legislation for the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights group.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oklahoma has some of the strictest abortion laws in the nation, such as mandatory counseling and a 72-hour waiting period. However, the most conservative anti-abortion activists in the state want more immediate action.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Republican State Senator Joseph Silk attacked the trigger bill at a press conference in February.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt [the trigger bill] does absolutely nothing. And you can ask them \u2018what does that do for the kids that are being killed today, and this week and this year?\u2019 Nothing,\u201d Silk said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead, he championed an alternative &#8211; an immediate abortion ban. Supporters of Silk\u2019s bill thronged the state capitol in February.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31393\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-31393\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-2-1920x1280.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-2-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-2-672x448.jpeg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-2-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-2-150x100.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-2-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-2-620x413.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/04\/Okla.-Abortion-Protest-2-1620x1080.jpeg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Fortier \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">An anti-abortion protestor at the Oklahoma Capitol in support of Senator Joseph Silk&#8217;s bill to abolish abortion immediately.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The effort for an outright ban failed; but anti-abortion advocates continued to target\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kosu.org\/post\/oklahoma-lawmakers-advance-abortion-trigger-bill\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treat<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other self-described &#8220;pro-life&#8221; Republicans with protests, billboards, and fliers, accusing them of not being anti-abortion enough.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At a health and human services committee hearing in February, Treat complained of his treatment.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019ve been called every name in the book these past few weeks, I\u2019ve had my Christianity questioned, I\u2019ve had a member of my own caucus hold a press conference and call me a hypocrite,\u201d Treat said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, he is trying something else \u2014 an<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us\/cf_pdf\/2019-20%20FLOOR%20AMENDMENTS\/Senate\/SB195%20(3-13-19)%20(TREAT)%20FS%20FA2.PDF\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that would reinforce that nothing in state law &#8220;secures or protects&#8221; the right to abortion.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe&#8217;ve seen this in Tennessee in West Virginia in Alabama, and now we&#8217;re seeing an effort in Oklahoma,\u201d Nash said. \u201cAnd really what this is about is setting the stage for adopting abortion bans or restrictions.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similar to a trigger law, a state constitutional amendment wouldn\u2019t ban abortion until there was a change on the federal level, like a repeal of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Roe v. Wade<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In the meantime, Nash says a constitutional amendment would \u201cset up the state constitution so that abortion restrictions and bans would be upheld if they were challenged in state court.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.acluok.org\/en\/biographies\/ryan-kiesel\">Ryan Kiesel, Executive Director of the ACLU of Oklahoma<\/a> said the organization is considering a legal challenge that might block the measure from appearing on the ballot.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe question is whether the legislature can use a ballot question to make an entire subject matter of law immune from any future state constitutional challenges,\u201d Kiesel said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treat has authored bills on abortion in the past that the state supreme court has thrown out, including a ballot measure seeking to abolish abortion.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For now, Oklahoma Republican lawmakers have hit the pause button on the constitutional amendment bill, though it will probably come up in the next legislative session. If it passes, the question could be put before voters as soon as 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A perceived anti-abortion tilt of the U.S. Supreme Court has inspired state lawmakers to move to outlaw abortion entirely if Roe V. Wade ever falls. But the rush to regulate has exposed divisions among lawmakers who consider themselves staunch abortion opponents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":31394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"page-noFeature.php","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[1053,857,1054,809],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31392"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31404,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31392\/revisions\/31404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}