Oklahoma Bill to Ban Sex-Selection Abortions, Allow Reporting Info in Jeopardy
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 5, 2009
Oklahoma City, OK (LifeNews.com) — An Oklahoma pro-life bill that would prohibit using abortions for purposes of sex-selection and would allow better reporting information about abortions done in the state appears in jeopardy. The House passed the legislation 93-4 in February and the state Senate backed HB 1595 on a 34-10 vote last month.
However, Tony Lauinger, the president of Oklahomans for Life, tells LifeNews.com the bill is in danger of dying in a conference committee because of the cost estimate from the Health Department for implementing the law.
Lauinger is calling on pro-life advocates to contact their state legislators.
"Please ask Oklahoma legislators to make the funds available so that abortion clinics will be required to report abortions and abortion complications," he tells LifeNews.com. "HB 1595 will also ensure abortion-facility compliance with existing abortion statutes."
"Ask legislators to make HB 1595 a priority. Ask them to free up the funds for this pro-life bill," the pro-life advocate continued. "The sustained support of pro-life legislators is needed now to help HB 1595 become law."
Lauinger says legislators have no reason to worry about the funding, which is a miniscule part of the state budget.
"The estimated cost of the reporting program is $280,000 in a state budget of more than six billion dollars," he said.
HB 1595 was the total focus of Rose Day, the pro-life lobbying day at the Capitol the first week of session in February.
Lauinger says abortion advocates like to talk about how they want to make abortion "safe, legal and rare" and he tells LifeNews.com that the bill "is needed to measure the accuracy of that claim."
"Complications from abortion, especially, are seldom reported, and the extent of the damage abortion does to women’s health is not known," he said.
Related web sites:
Oklahomans for Life – https://www.okforlife.org
Oklahoma State Legislature – https://www.lsb.state.ok.us
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