- Abortion is fully under attack.
- Members House bill -- 43-27.
- Well, SB 1503 mirrors the Texas Heartbeat Bill.
- It's similar to the Texas bill that recently passed.
- Which we know has actually been allowed to stay in affect.
- And Oklahoma is very interested
in an outright abortion ban.
- If passed, it will provide an avenue to sue abortion
providers in civil court for providing abortions.
- Everyone should be concerned
about what's happened in Oklahoma.
How goes Oklahoma goes the rest of the country.
- The language of this bill was drafted
by the former Solicitor General of Texas
to closely mirror the Texas bill.
I move for adoption and yield to questions.
- As the Oklahoma legislative session started,
there have been SB copycat bills
that have been moved through the House and the Senate.
At any moment now, basically, in Oklahoma,
we could have to stop providing care.
I knew they were gonna do this last.
- House bill 4327, page --
-This is the emergency funding. - You're recognized
to explain the amendment. -
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
- Just to hear what people in the state legislature
are saying about abortion clinics
and abortion doctors and abortion patients --
it's just unbelievable.
It's really hard to watch, and we know that
this is probably our last opportunity
to provide people locally with this car,e and so,
I think people are finding it within themselves to keep going,
but people are tired.
One of the tenets of healthcare
is that it's accessible to people,
and if you're making something so inaccessible,
that's just wrong.
Patients are really struggling to get care
that they need, period, and then also to just get care
that they need in a timely fashion.
So, we're looking at even more people being displaced
from their homes, needing abortion care.
It's a pretty dire state of affairs.
I'm gonna ask you if you would like to know
how far along you are, if you want to know,
if there are multiple gestations,
such as twins, if you'd like to be informed,
if you'd like to see the image or hear fetal heart tones.
Okay, absolutely.
- I used to be very pro-life
because that's what my family used to be.
They used to be very pro-life.
And then I had two kids at a young age,
and I realized, this isn't for everybody.
It's not as easy as everybody makes it seem to just raise kids
by yourself and be alone and go through it alone.
It's not just as easy as it is.
I have a three-year-old and a one-year-old, and I'm 19.
I don't get help from my family,
and I cannot go through another pregnancy.
It's hard, and I don't want to have to go through it again.
- Any questions for me before I go over
some of the stuff with you and get you out of here?
- No. - You're local, right?
- Yes. - Okay.
Well, that's good.
- People feel that they have rights to somebody else's body
when they don't, and it sucks that other people
are going to have to either raise a child
that they're not ready for or go through a hard pregnancy
or go through miscarriage or go through difficulty labor
or end up having to give a baby away
and have that on their conscience
for the rest of their life.
- You good? Got all your stuff?
- Yeah. - Okay, cool.
- If their situation for the mother
can't provide for that child and has no will to try,
then there's probably thousands, if not millions,
of parents out there or families
that would love to take those babies that can't have children.
- Representative Russ, you are recognized to explain the bill.
- Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Members, this bill is very straightforward.
It adds abortion after the detectable heartbeat
in the state statute, similar to other crimes that take a life.
It does have an exception for the life of the mother.
I stand for questions and move to adoption.
Oklahoma would rather have an outright abortion ban
than to just kind of nibble around the edges.
If people want the respect of their private bodies
and their private lives to be left alone,
then I think they have to prove to the people
that are fighting for the life of unborn children,
that they can perform in a responsible way.
We're very optimistic, and we're excited to be able
to save tens of thousands of brand-new babies' lives
and help those mothers at the same time.
- This bill is better than the Texas bill.
The Texas bill is known as the Heartbeat Bill,
and this bill is effective from conception.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I yield my time to you. - Thank you for your debate.
The question for the house is, shall the bill pass?
Go back to the machine --
-These bills aren't banning abortion.
They're simply outsourcing it.
People of means are going to find ways to get an abortion.
If they have to travel outside of Oklahoma,
they'll be able to do that.
Poor folks don't have that option.
We don't believe that people should, you know,
be denied healthcare access
simply based on their income level or their zip code,
and that's what these abortion bans do.
- I don't agree that it just displaces abortion.
They're gonna have to stop and rethink,
"Where would I go to have an abortion?"
Along the way, they're gonna pass an opportunity or encounter
an opportunity to say, "What's my second option?
What if I don't have an abortion?"
So, I would disagree that we're just displacing abortion.
- Oh, wow. I really did that.
The thing is, that if it was really about women
and people who are pregnant and respecting their rights,
you would listen to them, and the screaming,
deafening thing that people want is to access healthcare.
- Bye. - Bye.
- Bye. See you tomorrow.
- You know, we're gonna see our world and society
step backwards in terms of civil rights,
and that's really, really devastating.