If Republicans in Oklahoma have their way, pregnant women will be entered into a state government database if the Supreme Court upends Roe v. Wade in a scary bill that assigns a “unique identifying number” to every pregnant woman in the system.
As the conservative majority on the high court prepares to gut women’s reproductive rights, Republicans in Oklahoma are already filing extreme anti-abortion bills that the governor has already promised to sign regardless of what is put in front of him.
One bill, in particular, is incredibly disturbing as it would basically allow the government to keep track of pregnant women and pressure them into not having an abortion.
According to Huffington Post:
The most radical of the bunch is Senate Bill 1167, filed by state Sen. George Burns (R). Titled the Every Mother Matters Act, or EMMA, it would establish a government database for pregnant people looking to get abortions in Oklahoma. Each pregnant person will call a hotline and be connected with a “pre-abortion resource” assistant, but that person is legally not allowed to refer a patient to an abortion provider. The pregnant person would then be assigned a “unique identifying number” in the database, and abortion providers would be mandated to keep the information for seven years.
As part of the program, the woman will “be connected with a care agent who will provide, at no cost to her, an assessment of eligibility and offer assistance in obtaining support services, other than abortion, for her or the unborn child’s biological father,” according to a press statement from Burns’ office. The services include information on adoption, housing, employment, child care and more, but not on abortion care. It is unclear if the hotline assistants will have any medical expertise in reproductive care, but the legislation does bar anyone who’s worked for an abortion clinic in the past from signing up to be a resource agent.
A “unique identifying number” sounds like what the Nazis did to Jews when they imprisoned them in concentration camps. While some of the information offered is a good idea, it should not come with a caveat of pressuring women into giving birth against their will. It’s also a violation of privacy that would allow Republicans to track down women to see if they had an abortion or not when it’s absolutely none of their business.
The conservative wing of the Supreme Court has turned it into an illegitimate institution that is only interested in forcing an extreme right-wing agenda upon Americans instead of interpreting the Constitution and honoring precedent. Treating women like livestock is the most extreme part of that agenda and the best way to protect it now is to oust these “judges” and replace them or render them powerless by expanding the court.
Another way would be to pass legislation codifying Roe v. Wade, which the House has already done but is dead in the Senate because of the filibuster. Even if the bill were to become law, the conservatives on the court would seek to strike it down because they care more about their extreme religious beliefs than about the Constitution and the rule of law. That’s exactly what Oklahoma Republicans are doing now and it is monstrous.
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