{"id":34923,"date":"2022-06-01T22:55:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T03:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=34923"},"modified":"2022-06-02T14:34:13","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T19:34:13","slug":"critics-say-oklahomas-crackdown-on-abortion-and-critical-race-theory-rely-on-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2022\/06\/01\/critics-say-oklahomas-crackdown-on-abortion-and-critical-race-theory-rely-on-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics say Oklahoma\u2019s abortion and Critical Race Theory crackdowns rely on fear"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px; margin-bottom: 20px; border-radius: 6px; overflow: hidden;\"><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/8f7afd2e-98d6-424f-8c8d-d576a5450074\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oklahoma\u2019s new abortion laws are confusing. So confusing, even the lawmakers who voted to approve them struggle to understand them.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back in April, the Senate gave its final hearing to House Bill 4327, a Texas-style abortion ban. That means it mirrors the mechanism Texas created, where the law is enforced not by criminal punishment but the threat of costly lawsuits. It allows private citizens to sue anyone who performs or help someone get an abortion, with damages of up to $10,000.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">State Sen. Warren Hamilton is one of the most vocal anti-abortion Republicans in the Oklahoma Legislature.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHow would I, as a conscientious Okie, come into possession of the knowledge that somebody has violated the provisions of this law?\u201d Hamilton said during that hearing.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Democratic Sen. Jo Anna Dossett had a similar question \u2014 a hypothetical from the perspective of an abortion patient.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat emotional distress could I have possibly caused that person who has no connection to me such that that person could be awarded damages in a civil suit?\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She was asking the measure\u2019s author, Sen. Julie Daniels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI want to remind everyone that this bill is meant to be a deterrent,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cDeterring those who would perform abortion by not wanting to take the risk of being in a civil suit for the abortion. So that\u2019s what the intent is.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIs this bill intended to scare me into not having an abortion?\u201d Dossett asked.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf this bill encourages any woman to carry her pregnancy through to term, that will be a good thing,\u201d Daniels said.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34925\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 672px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-34925\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21110721042573-672x488.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"672\" height=\"488\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21110721042573-672x488.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21110721042573-1920x1395.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21110721042573-768x558.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21110721042573-1536x1116.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21110721042573-2048x1488.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21110721042573-150x109.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21110721042573-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21110721042573-620x451.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21110721042573-1486x1080.jpg 1486w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE &#8211; Oklahoma state Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, asks a question during a meeting of the Oklahoma Legislature Medical Marijuana Working Group in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo\/Sue Ogrocki, File)<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That bill, House Bill 4327, passed. Lawmakers voted to consider the measure an emergency, so it went into effect as soon as Gov. Kevin Stitt signed it last month.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It bans most abortions, starting at fertilization. Another Texas-style bill bans abortions after cardiac activity can be detected \u2014 about six weeks. Another ban would not depend on civil enforcement; it criminalizes the procedure and threatens providers with up to a decade in prison.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Critics note the sheer number of bills \u2014 and the fact that they contradict one another \u2014 creates even more confusion.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the attorneys involved in the lawsuits challenging these bills is Rabia Muqaddam, with the Center for Reproductive Rights. She said that no other state has passed multiple conflicting measures back-to-back like Oklahoma has.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere&#8217;s really no rhyme or reason other than that a radical attempt to just confuse people, create chaos, and wreak as much havoc as they can possibly do on people who are seeking abortion and the providers who provide it,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But abortion isn\u2019t the only issue where Oklahoma elected officials are stoking fear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Critical Race Theory \u2014 otherwise known as CRT \u2014 has become a term that\u2019s practically lost all meaning because of the fear around it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secretary of Education and candidate for state superintendent Ryan Walters has been at the forefront of the state\u2019s CRT rhetoric.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34924\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 672px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-34924\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21042719679591-672x448.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"672\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21042719679591-672x448.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21042719679591-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21042719679591-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21042719679591-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21042719679591-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21042719679591-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21042719679591-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21042719679591-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2022\/06\/AP21042719679591-1620x1080.jpg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ryan Walters, Oklahoma Secretary of Education, speaks during a news conference Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo\/Sue Ogrocki)<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI sent a letter to textbook companies telling them to look at all of their curriculum and ensure that there&#8217;s no aspects of Critical Race Theory in their textbooks,\u201d he said in a selfie video recorded in his car.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There isn\u2019t anything in that letter explicitly mentioning Critical Race Theory, the 4-decade old academic concept that posits race is embedded within our cultural and legal institutions. Instead it\u2019s all about complying with 2021\u2019s House Bill 1775, which bans teaching divisive content that make students feel uncomfortable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The real CRT is generally taught in higher-level classes, like in graduate and law schools. It looks at the role racism plays in society today. But as OU professor Karlos Hill told <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">StateImpact<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> earlier this year, the debate is being leveraged by conservative lawmakers to energize their base and win elections.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis critical race boogeyman, this manufactured polarization, is very effective in doing that, but it&#8217;s going to have long term disastrous consequences,\u201d Hill said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hill says those consequences include a watered down history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But history isn\u2019t the only issue, says Tamya Cox-Tour\u00e9.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe saw school districts that were telling teachers \u2014 in Edmond specifically \u2014 that they couldn\u2019t use the word \u2018diversity\u2019 or \u2018white privilege,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWhich is going, in our minds, further than (HB) 1775 does.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cox-Tour\u00e9 is the executive director of the ACLU and the co-chair of Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice, both of which are in litigation with the state right now regarding these laws.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She drew two parallels between the CRT legislation and the abortion legislation. Both are hot-button issues in national politics. And neither of the bans are detailed and explicit, which leaves the door open to interpretation.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCan people give to the Roe fund?\u201d she asked. \u201cCan people simply tell people, \u2018You have options in other states\u2019? Is that in violation?\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The law doesn\u2019t say. She said that in the past, it would have been easy to chalk the ambiguity up to an oversight \u2014 to believe lawmakers must not have understood the bills\u2019 potential unintended consequences.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe\u2019re really thinking that maybe it is very intentional,\u201d she said. \u201cThat it is very much part of the strategy behind these ultra-conservative bills.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma\u2019s new abortion laws are confusing. So confusing, even the lawmakers who voted to approve them struggle to understand them.Back in April, the Senate gave its final hearing to House Bill 4327, a Texas-style abortion ban. That means it mirrors the mechanism Texas created, where the law is enforced not by criminal punishment but the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":34926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34923"}],"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\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34923"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34932,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34923\/revisions\/34932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}