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Oklahoma Senate
Legislators Disappointed Pro-Life Issue Turned Into Partisan Vote By Senate Democrats
State Capitol, Oklahoma City – Senator Scott Pruitt expressed disappointment that Senate Democrat leaders turned a vote on pro-life legislation into a partisan issue Monday, leading majority Democrats in the Senate to vote to send the bill to a conference committee instead of to the Governor to be signed into law.
“Senate Bill 492 was amended in the House to include language to provide women with the right to know when it comes to abortion: the right to know how far the unborn child has developed; the right to know about the medical risks of an abortion; the right to know about alternatives to abortion. But the Senate’s pro-abortion leadership – representing a minority of Senate members on the issue – succeeded in turning this from a moral issue to a partisan issue for the Democrat caucus,” said Pruitt, R-Broken Arrow.
“There is a still a ray of hope for this important legislation. But with Senate Democrats voting to send the bill to a conference committee, where good bills often go to die, SB 492 is most likely dead for the session,” stated Pruitt.
Meanwhile, the author of the House’s pro-life amendment added to SB 492, Rep. Kevin Calvey, expressed disappointment in the Senate vote.
“We’re very disappointed the Senate Democrats used the excuse of a fiscal impact to justify opposing this legislation. Even so, Senator Pruitt and I are willing to make changes to the bill to address these concerns. This is important legislation that deserves a chance to become law,” stated Calvey, R-Del City. Calvey’s HB 1736 was the basis for the pro-life language added to SB 492 in the House.
Pruitt concluded, “This bill succumbed to the politics of deception. But my hope is that if the fiscal concerns of Senate Democrats are the real reason for their opposition, we will be able to remove any costs associated with the legislation and ultimately succeed in getting this bill to the Governor’s desk with the pro-life language intact.”
