Here is how weird it can become in the Oklahoma legislature.
A reporter for The Oklahoman, Ben Felder wrote two things happened yesterday in the house Health and Human Services Committee. First, as pro and anti choice fans gathered in the halls of the capitol the committee passed SB 195. It was, "written," by Senate President Pro Tempore, Greg Treat, whose district covers a sliver of far northwest OKC and gerrymanders west and south through some suburbs.
The law, as written, will completely outlaw abortions in Oklahoma the very minute the Supreme Court of the United States overturns the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which made them legal. In the trade it is called a, "trigger bill."
In other corners this is known as betting on the come. Usually it's a sucker move, but given the makeup of the Supreme Court and the health of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who knows what will transpire in the next year, or so.
When it passes Oklahoma won't be the first state with such a law. Five others already have nearly identical legislation in place. Just a coincidence you ask? Hardly. State legislatures, Oklahoma's included, are full of illiterate right wing flamers who usually can barely spell their names. Actually authoring legislation is completely beyond them.
No, stuff like this comes from conservative PACs and think tanks who write the bills, then circulate them among local legislators. Those representatives and senators fill in the blanks--you know, like the name of their state--then present them as if they were all their own.
Treat's bill was opposed by four members of the committee, three democrats and one republican, Joseph Silk, R-Broken Arrow.
Silk's outrage was palpable. Felder quoted him as saying to the committee, "If you're interested in protecting life, Senate Bill 195 does absolutely nothing right now. This body stands by and does nothing to actually end the greatest massacre this nation has ever seen."
Silk, of course, had written his own bill regarding the issue. SB 13 would have certainly done something, "right now." If passed it would have immediately made performing an abortion a heavy duty felony. That's the only way you can describe a charge of homicide, which is exactly what the measure demanded, no ifs, ands, buts, or coconuts.
The committee chair, Jason Smalley refused to even consider, Silk's proposal. His reasoning was quite logical. He saw no use in passing a law which everyone in their right mind knows would be struck down immediately by the courts. Treat agreed, mainly because he has experience in that area.
In 2014 he pushed a bill through the legislature which required abortion providers to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of their clinics. That law didn't even make it into the federal system. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 2016 after a myriad of stays and lower court rulings.
Reality and sanity, however, never deters a person like, Joe Silk. Afterward he told the gathered anti choice rowdies--who booed Treat and Smalley, not to mention the pro choice crowd with gusto--"Does the state of Oklahoma need the court's permission to stop the killing of innocent children? The answer is no."
It's a statement so demonstrably wrong, it's doubtful even Donald Trump would utter it. Or not, you never know what that wild and merrily mixed up guy will say.
Whatever the case, Mr. Silk's bill is dead, at least for this session and Greg Treat's will, no doubt, be passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor. That's what happens when democrats are outnumbered 39 to nine in one chamber and 77 to 24 in the other. Not to mention having a chief executive who once questioned the practice of vaccinating children against things like Rubella and the flu.
Yes, when we turned to the right in Oklahoma we went way out there. So far, in fact, the state's motto should be, Conservatives Uber Alles: Crazy, Crazier and the Craziest. Well that, or Down Here it Might be Cruel, but it Damn Sure Ain't Unusual.
Ladies and gentlemen, as you can guess, the bar is most definitely open.
2-26-19
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