Opponents to abortion bill weigh options
The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma is weighing its legal options after the Senate advanced a measure that would ask voters to determine the state constitution does not afford the right to an abortion.
“I think it is an unprecedented assault on the Oklahoma Constitution,” said Ryan Kiesel, executive director of the Oklahoma affiliate of the ACLU.
The measure is pending in the House after securing approval by a vote of 40-8 in the Senate.
Senate Bill 195 started out as a personhood bill by Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa.
Senate Republican leadership refused to hear Senate Bill 13, by Sen. Joseph Silk, R-Broken Bow, which would have outlawed abortion.
“What we are seeing is a political effort by Republican leadership to appease anti-abortion activists within the Republican base,” said Kiesel, an attorney and former House member. “They are doing that because they upset those activists earlier this session when Republican leadership refused to hear a patently unconstitutional measure that would have outlawed all abortions in the state of Oklahoma. “And in response to this anger of this small constituency, Republican leadership is now scrambling to try to come up with some political red meat they can throw to their base to prove their pro-life credentials.”
Abolitionists turned up the heat on the antiabortion lawmakers who for years have passed measures putting additional restrictions on abortion, many of which have been tossed by the courts. More than once they were at the Capitol seeking to have Senate Bill 13 heard.
Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat then took over Rader's Senate Bill 195. House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City, is the House author. Treat shucked the personhood language and put in language that said should Roe v. Wade be overturned, abortion in Oklahoma would no longer be legal. Roe v. Wade was a 1973 landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion.
But right before the deadline to get bills out of the house of origin, Treat again changed the language in Senate Bill 195.
The new language would refer to a vote of the people a state question that says there is no right to an abortion in the Oklahoma Constitution. The question seeks to amend the Oklahoma Constitution.
The measure would not outlaw abortion because federal law, including case law, supersedes state law.
Kiesel said should the measure go to a vote of the people and pass, challenges to anti-abortion measures would have to be brought under the U.S. Constitution.
Treat is not concerned that voters, who in recent years have rejected state questions lawmakers sent them, would vote against the possible state question.
“Whenever you put an initiative out there, there is always chance of failure, but I believe that Oklahomans are overwhelmingly pro-life and overwhelmingly value the dignity of life from conception,” Treat said. “Senate Bill 195 doesn't outlaw abortion in Oklahoma. It just makes sure the state constitution can't be used as a weapon against the unborn child.” Kiesel said he didn't think voter approval of such a measure is a foregone conclusion.
On Nov. 8, 2016, voters rejected State Question 790 that would have removed a portion of the Oklahoma Constitution cited in a 2015 Oklahoma Supreme Court decision on the removal of the privately funded Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol.
The ACLU Oklahoma filed the legal challenge to get the monument removed.
“Voters in Oklahoma at least on one very recent occasion have seen through the political gimmicks that were behind a state ballot measure,” Kiesel said.
Kiesel said the ACLU is reviewing its legal options, including a potential challenge before the measure went on the ballot.
Treat believes the Oklahoma Supreme Court would be hard pressed to toss the measure off the ballot should it secure House approval. “If the Pro Tem has a bill and the Pro Tem wants it heard, the House will hear it,” Echols said. But Treat also has authored bills on abortion that courts have thrown out. The Oklahoma Supreme Court nullified a ballot measure seeking to abolish abortion.
Treat believes the Oklahoma Supreme Court has come close to finding that the right to an abortion is supported in the Oklahoma Constitution.
Treat disagrees with those who believe his state question is an effort to gin up the conservative base.
“It is a very real threat,” Treat said. “And just look at the Oklahoma Supreme Court decisions over the last decade and you will see it is not a false threat. It is a very real threat, and it is at our doorstep.”