Monday May 24, 2010
Oklahoma Gov Vetoes Third Pro-Life Measure on Abortion Reporting, House Overrides
By Peter J. Smith
Updated 6:49 pm EST
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma, May 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Oklahoma House of Representatives has overridden Governor Brad Henry's third veto of Oklahoma pro-life legislation, this time of a law designed to help the state’s health and human services department gather statistical information on why women are seeking abortions, abortion-related complications, and whether abortion facilities are following standard safety protocols.
The measure awaits a veto override by the state Senate before it can become law.
Henry rejected on Saturday HB 3284, The Statistical Abortion Report Act, which the state legislature had approved and sent to his desk on May 11.
The measure would require that abortionists fill out 37 questions reporting information on abortion procedures and medical safety protocols, and ask their clients for the reasons they were seeking abortion. The state health department would be tasked with deriving abortion statistics from the data, that could be publicly accessed through the Internet.
In a statement, the governor alleged that the legislation would be “forcing” women seeking abortion to submit to a “personally invasive questionnaire and posting the answers on a state website.”
In his veto message, Henry particularly objected to the lack of an exemption for pregnant women who say they are victims of rape and incest.
“This legislation will only increase the trauma of an already traumatic event. Victims of such horrific acts should be treated with dignity and respect in such situations, as should all people," he said.
However, Oklahomans for Life Chairman Tony Lauinger contested the governor’s claim as factually untrue that women would have been “forced” into responding to the question – the law only requires that abortionists ask the questions, and women are free to decline to answer.
“It is apparent from the Veto Message that the Governor does not understand the bill,” the pro-life leader said in a statement provided to LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) Monday afternoon. “No information about a woman's identity accompanies the data gathered. The public report is simply an annual statistical summary compiled from all of the data gathered for the year.”
“Hopefully, this information will make it possible to address underlying problems in ways that could avoid the taking of an innocent human life.”
Lauinger added that the measure also mandated that the public have accurate data on abortion-related complications - seldom-reported events that he said would help put to the test the claim that abortion is "safe, legal, and rare."
The abortion reporting provisions had been passed previously in an abortion-related omnibus bill that was later struck down by the state Supreme Court for violating the single-issue rule. That bill was then split up into a series of bills, all of which have now passed the legislature.
However, it remains to be seen whether the Oklahoma legislature has the political will to face-off Gov. Henry a third time for a veto override.
The measure had been approved with a 32-11 margin in the Senate, and a massive 88-8 margin in the House. In order to mount a successful veto override, which requires a two-thirds majority in both houses, pro-life lawmakers would need to retain all thirty-two votes in the Senate and must keep sixty-eight votes in the House.
The governor has already vetoed two other abortion laws, with both vetoes overridden by the legislature. One measure expanded the state’s informed consent law by requiring abortionists to perform an ultrasound on a mother seeking an abortion, and to show her the screen and give a description of her unborn child at its stage of development. Another prohibited “wrongful birth” lawsuits, preventing doctors from facing civil liability for failing to provide information that would have led a woman to seek an abortion.
Madeleine Baldwin, assistant to Oklahoma Rep. Pam Peterson, told LSN that it is possible the Oklahoma legislature will attempt a veto override Monday afternoon. The story will be updated as the events unfold.
See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:
Oklahoma Legislature Bans Abortion Coverage, Expects Showdown with Governor
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/may/10052114.html
Oklahoma Senate Overrides Governor Veto of Pro-Life Legislation
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10042702.html
Oklahoma House Passes Pro-Life Bills by Massive Margin
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10033105.html