Texas Has Talked of Secession — Okay, Go Back to Mexico and Take Oklahoma

Oklahoma GOP Gov. Mary Fallin

A fact: State legislators can and do in fact pass anything they want. This seems to be the new trend in our country: If they dislike someone, a group, any historical process, or procedure, or even tradition, hell, just toss it and replace it with some wacky, ultra-right wing bullshit bill. Case in point: Oklahoma bans abortions and threatens doctors.

Essence of that bill: “Most doctors who perform abortions would risk losing their licenses by doing so under a new Oklahoma bill. Doctors who perform abortions — an act the measure defines as “unprofessional conduct” — would be banned from obtaining or renewing their medical licenses under the bill, an amended version of which was returned to the Senate from the House this week. Only doctors who perform abortions to save a mother’s life would be exempt from the measure — the bill lacks similar exceptions for abortions performed in cases of rape or incest.”

Two key points:

1.  Nice to see rape back in GOP headlines as a form of family planning.
2.  No exception for incest, either. Okay, allow birth of potentially very DNA/Genetic damaged children (this chart). 

 

This historical reminder:  “During the 2012 Republican Party convention in Tampa, the Platform Committee struggled with an aspect of the argument against legal abortion. Just about everyone on the committee agreed that abortion should be banned. But committee members were split over whether official party doctrine should include exceptions to the abortion ban if a fetus was the result of rape or incest. In the end, ideological purity prevailed. The official Republican platform states, “We assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.” No exceptions — period. Even in cases of first-degree relative incest.”

Hopefully, this bill will not pass USSC muster. It should not and in fact, it must not, based on this one related decision, and one now pending a decision (expected in June):

Related and decided case.

Related and pending case. 

Stay tuned.