The Intrusion
4 January, 2010
By Bryan Lower
Oklahoma’s new anti-choice law puts women under the microscope.
What were they thinking?
The Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma City must have been aware that their new anti-choice law would be challenged. They must have known it would be unlikely to stand up in the courts. Yet they passed a law that is so blatantly ideological that the national headlines would again advertise Oklahoma’s bold conservatism.
Conservatives can’t get abortion overturned outright, so they’ve been trying to pick away at the edges. For those who argue for reproductive freedom based on a right to privacy, Oklahoma’s House Bill 1595 attacks right at your heart. Instead of treating a woman’s decision to have an abortion as a private matter, the Oklahoma legislature is shining an unprecedented light of publicity on it.
As State Senator Todd Lamb put it, the law is intended to “collect hard data that can be a useful tool in helping prevent future unwanted pregnancies.” To this end, they are requiring women to answer ten pages worth of questions before having an abortion performed. The questions range from the woman’s age, race, and marital status to how having a baby would change her life.
If that were all the law required, it would be intrusive enough. But no. There is more. Anti-choice supporters of the law are taking the extra step of posting this information online! Though the woman’s name would not be attached to the data, every abortion questionnaire would be available to the public. Opponents are alarmed at the unwarranted publicity, and are concerned that women may be identified by their answers to the questions.
In fairness, I don’t see any problem with getting information to prevent unwanted pregnancies. That is the sort of thing sociologists do, and the information may improve the health of women. What Oklahoma conservatives are doing, though, is not that. Instead of getting a random sample of women who seek abortions, the law polls the entire universe. That level of investigation is not necessary for sociological purposes. And sociologists would not ask the kind of questions on the Oklahoma form. The questionnaire amounts to an anal exam. It is an intrusive, unnecessarily lengthy interrogation that intends to shame the subject.
As if this new embarrassment to Oklahoma were not enough, lawmakers have chosen to spend more than a quarter of a million dollars to administer the law. This while the state is mired in a budget crisis.
This the irony of Oklahoma’s backwater brand of conservatism. Our regressive lawmakers will proudly tout their fiscal conservative bona fides… until it comes to wasting taxpayer money to support social conservative dogma.
© 2010 Bryan Lower
Feedback: Comment on a thread in our forum.
The views expressed in Grindstone Journal are those of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors, publishers and advertisers of the Grindstone Journal. The Grindstone Journal publishes opinion and commentary. It is not a peer reviewed academic journal and should not be construed as such.
Bryan Lower studies Political Science at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. He currently resides in Tulsa with his wife and two daughters.Email: bryan@grindstonejournal.com
