Forced Penetration Required by Law in Oklahoma
By idyllicmollusk • May 2nd, 2008 • Category: Politics
Forced penetration is now required by law in Oklahoma, but only for sluts (i.e. women who want to terminate their pregnancies. You know, sluts.)
Get ready to vom. Recall this post about the Oklahoma legislature bill allowing abortion-seeking women the freedom of eye movement? I jested that this bill was a human rights victory, but in reality it was a list of provisions to interfere with women’s ability to access abortion. Gov. Henry did indeed VETO this bill (thanks Brad), but the incensed OK legislature overrode his veto less than 16 hours after it occurred.
What will make you puke is that Senate Bill 1878 contains many other disgusting items, including a section that MANDATES medically unnecessary ultrasounds before a woman can have her abortion. No other states mandate this, though some say the option must be made available to women.
From Alternet:
Under the guise of obtaining informed patient consent, this new law requires doctors to withhold pregnancy termination until an ultrasound is performed. The law states that either an abdominal or vaginal ultrasound, whichever gives the best image of the fetus, must be done. Neither the patient nor the doctor can decide which type of ultrasound to use, and the patient cannot opt out of the ultrasound and still have the procedure. In effect, then, the legislature has mandated that a woman have an instrument placed in her vagina for no medical benefit. The law makes no exception for victims of rape and incest.
From Shakesville:
[This bill] is one of the most stomach-churning requirements I have ever seen. They are willing to physically violate and humiliate women who are determined to have an abortion and willing to use the threat of that humiliation to try to dissuade women from having a legal medical procedure. Even the normally distressing commenters at Salon’s Broadsheet understood that this is just wrong. As one so aptly said, isn’t there a word for sticking something in a woman’s vagina against her free and uncoerced will?
Yes, there is. Thank you, Oklahoma Legislature, for mandating medical rape.
I can’t quite say why, but I have a general and growing unease regarding my rights as a female-genitalled person these days. Something to do with these laws that purportedly are for my own good, or to save me from myself. Let me tell you something, anymore myself is the last person I need saving from… Oklahoma legislators would be much much higher on my list, as would Supreme Court Justices Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia and Alito. (They of these amazing words: “The Act also recognizes that respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in a mother’s love for her child. Whether to have an abortion requires a difficult and painful moral decision…which some women come to regret” from when they randomly upheld a ban on the intact dilation & extraction abortion procedure, even though for some women this is the safest option.)
Can’t you feel the love? The love these judges and legislators have for women, much like that of a mother for a child? No? Me neither.
A final note from Alternet:
Failure to perform the ultrasound also leads to fines beginning at $10,000 and increasing to more than $100,000. By comparison, the highest fine for negligent homicide or driving under the influence in Oklahoma is $1,000.
© idyllicmollusk 5/2/08
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idyllicmollusk is only came here because she wanted to see if the inside of this famous legal system was as loathsome as she guessed it was. And now she's too depressed to want to see anything more.
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Well, I’m gald I didn’t read this right after lunch. This is one of the days when I’m more than happy to have my penis…and not to live in Oklahoma.
Oh, who am I kidding, I’m always happy for both. It’s just a matter of degrees. I think I’m more glad at the moment not to be living anywhere near Oklahoma.
The saddest thing about this whole thing, for me, is that so much of the push behind something like this is done by religious zealots who would squeal like stuck pigs if the government tried to interfere with their faith the way that they want the government to interfere with women. They don’t give two shits about women when they push this kind of legislation, they only care about imposing their beliefs on others who they deem to be morally inferior.
That’s just wrong. Period.
I will say that I’d wholeheartedly enjoy watching a doctor forcefully shove a ultrasound up their beliefs, just so they can see how empty and corrupt they are. That’d be fun.
Sha-zam Nate. Well said.
I know this isnt goign to be a popular comment, but the forced ultrasound is to determine how far itn to ehpregnancy the mothe ris before the pregnancy is terminated which must be done for sfatey reasons. If a woman is too early in her pregnancy then yes a vaginal ultrasound must be done to determine the age and size of the fetus before attempting an abortion. I am pro choice. I jsut happen to know the procedures and why they ar ein place. If a normal ultrasounds gives the information needed the woman will not have to undergo a vaginal ultrasound. As invasive as it is it actually is for the safety of the woman. Performing certain types of abortions after a certain stage int he pregnacy can cause sever risk and even death tot he mothers which is why they must verify the gestation of the fetus which is to be aborted.
I hope this helps everyone understand what is going on. Its not plesant, but its in some cases very needed.