Those of us with spacious corners of our memories and attentions reserved for Jerks Trying to Mess with People’s Bodily Autonomy will recall a special time last year when the Oklahoma state legislature tried to pass a “fetal personhood” bill. A few other states tried “personhood” on for size, too! Meanwhile, OK4RJ bloggers broke the whole appalling, disturbing, and offensive thing down for all y’all:
“These people are against abortion, they’re against contraception, and they’re against sex. I wouldn’t trust them as far as I can throw them. DON’T BUY IT. This bill is intentionally vague. If it could be used to limit birth control, IVF, and abortion, it more than likely will.” – Carly Palans,“Oklahoma Senators Aren’t Fooling Around”
Then an Even Specialer time happened when that bill failed. Which was fantastic! A study just released by the National Advocates for Pregnant Women proves how dangerous it is to concretize the notion that embryos and fetuses should have legal rights. Many speculated on the possibility that miscarriage and other complications associated with pregnancy could be criminalized – this study shows that has already happened. Some of us may have wondered if a legislative trend that out-there scary could be the final death-knell of fanatical far-right anti-abortion movements.
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I guess the short answer to that is “Nope.” State Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, has filed an almost-identical “fetal personhood” bill in the state senate:
‘The bill states that life begins at conception — which is already part of state law — and that “unborn children have protectable interests in life, health, and well-being,”‘
The only difference beyond the name on the bill is the time span of one year. One year ago, however, the media was focused so intensely on this type of struggle over reproductive rights that a new media term was invented (“The War on Women”) and we found out just exactly how many rape apologists are making our laws. And during those months of spiking activity – both defensive and offensive – from anti-abortion politicians, this legislation had a rough go of it before failing completely. Here, “a rough go” refers to repeated public-money-sucking attempts by Oklahoma representatives and lobbyists to shovel this garbage through.
In the absolute best-case scenario, Mike Reynolds’ peers will take one look at this photocopied nonsense and sigh. “Didn’t we do this already?” they’ll ask. But since that probably won’t happen, we’re here, shaming Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, for being a lazy, wasteful weirdo who thinks fertilized eggs should have more rights than full-grown Oklahomans. You know – the full-grown Oklahomans who can vote him out of office.
Pearl wants this Reynolds bro to know that one month after he filed this thing, every person within 800 miles who knows exactly how shitty he is will be in Oklahoma, hating him. Hate Root 2013.
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