Oklahoma state senator Constance Johnson is awesome. First, she attempted to attach an “every sperm is sacred” amendment to Oklahoma’s Personhood Bill. (That bill is currently tied up in court.)
Last week, Senator Johnson tried to derail the fetal heartbeat bill (SB 1274 “Heartbeat Informed Consent Act”) by attaching a vasectomy amendment to it. Although the amendment was rejected, I’m posting about it because the bill language is amazing:
The Legislature finds that:
1. Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation over vasectomies;
2. There is substantial evidence that unregulated vasectomies result in fewer unwanted pregnancies and, by extension, fewer births;
3. It is patently unfair that men can avoid the rewards of unwanted fatherhood by presuming that their judgment over such matters is more valid than the judgment of the Legislature;
4. Fewer unwanted pregnancies result in fewer children living in poverty and a lower
prison population, and this is job killing in a time when social workers, police officers, and prison guards need the employment to feed their families; and5. It is the purpose of the Legislature to assert an invasive state interest in the reproductive habits of men in this state and substitute the will of the government over the will of adult men.
[…]3. In determining whether a vasectomy is necessary, no regard shall be made to the desire of a man to father children, to his economic situation, to his age, to the number of children he is currently responsible for, or to any danger to his wife or partner in the event a child is conceived. A vasectomy may only be performed to avert the death of the man or avert serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the man. No such condition shall be deemed to exist if it is based on a diagnosis or claim of a mental or emotional condition of the man or that the man will purposefully engage in conduct which he intends to result in his death or in substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.
More of these please.
(h/t @LbrlOkie77)
[cross-posted at ABLC]
TK-421
Constance Johnson reminds us why it’s extremely important to get involved in local and state races. And given the utter brokenness of Congress, it’s IMO more important to focus on the local races and get more progressives in the party structure.
mellowjohn
glad i got mine in 1975. in illinois.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
Oklahoma is a weird state, that I once lived in for about a year, years ago. In Tulsa, but I traveled all around the eastern and mostly SE part of the state. Among the oddities were their likker laws, that basically says you can’t serve hard likker in anything but a private club. So the bars (private clubs) would stack a bunch of likker bottles up in plain view, and tape peoples names on them so they could claim club status that club members had labelled their personal whisky jugs. Of course, the members names were made up, or of people maybe the bar owner personally knew that would say it was their personal brew, if asked, but they poured it out to anyone who would pay and over 21, just like any other bar.
Which was only trumped in weirdness by MS, when I lived there in Biloxi. When they approved gamb ling cassinos, but in order to satisfy the wingnut preachers, only allowed the cassinos to be off shore, so they could say no gambbling was NOT occurring on MS soil.
So you had all these funky looking buildings on barges a few feet out in the MS sound, that everyone knew would be a disaster if a major hurricane struck, and it finally did with Katrina, and it was a disaster, with those monstrosities floating inland crushing shit. I think they rethunk that now, and have them on shore.
Wingnuts, doing wingnut things.
Emperor of Ice Cream
TK at #1 THIS! A thousand times this. We will not have a real movement until and unless progressives are willing to get into the electoral trenches by running for , winning, then holding elective office at ALL levels. That means dog catcher on up. And you only get to skip those steps when you have m/billions in which case it is a vanity project or will to power. We can’t keep expecting/demanding presidents to swoop in and address all of our problems (this is true in terms of governance and politics). We are the only adults in the room (gulp).
gwangung
Fuck, yes. A million times this.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
Wait, there’s no exception for rape or incest?
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
This is much better than your bully pulpit nonsense.
Barry
@Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937: “Wait, there’s no exception for rape or incest?”
I think that that falls under the ‘sausage chop’ law :)
Jimbo316
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): Wonderful stuff. A serious lot of braindead legislators out there, sort of Southern grotesque.
marv
helluva woman – gotta be fun playing with the fragile okie male egos. i’ve lived there too and heard not for nothin’ are they called the sooners.
chrome agnomen
@marv:
i taw whut u did thar. LOLZ
Pat
Love this. In addition to the turnabout-is-fair-play, we need to seriously establish that women are not getting pregnant by themselves, and the partners need to share in the consequences of sex. All birth certificates should name the father, with attendant financial responsibilities.