To be pro-life, you must be “in favor of the preborn baby’s right to live” and for a law to be “pro-life” it must be “a law in favor of the preborn baby’s right to live.” Hold this thought.
Oklahoma’s Republican governor is expected to sign into law HB 4327. The pro-life establishment is touting HB 4327 as a major victory for the cause. Four decades of mostly failure by failed politicians has conditioned pro-lifers to go hog wild over anything resembling success.
We don’t enjoy being the cynic in the room, but we have to call it like it is — We’ve read the bill and it’s awful. Let’s take a look.
Reading HB 4327
The bill begins with the standard droll of definitions and what parts of the state code it modifies. We concede, the definition of an “unborn child” was quite good. Soon after, we start getting into the meat:
“A physician may not knowingly perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman.“ (pg. 2, line 16-17)
If you just read that far, it’s easy to understand why you’d want to pop the cork and launch some fireworks. But your celebration would be premature.
When reviewing legislation, it’s important to determine how a bill intends to accomplish its stated purpose. Then, evaluate whether it provides the means to actually do that.
The bill continues:
C. This act shall be enforced exclusively through private civil actions.
D. Any person, other than an officer or employee of a state or local governmental entity in this state, may bring a civil action against any person who:
This means the only enforcement of this penalty is through “private civil actions,” or in layman’s terms: lawsuits brought by private citizens at their own expense.
The bill limits those who can be sued to those who either perform or intend to perform abortions (the abortionists), those who aid in performing abortions (abortion mill staff), or those who intend on doing any of these things. Notably absent is the mother who paid to have her child executed. There is literally nothing in HB 4327 to dissuade a mother from killing her baby, or to discourage the father, family, or friends from encouraging her to kill her baby.
For those this bill does effect, the penalty under Oklahoma HB 4327 is as follows (pg. 3, lines 13-17):
Statutory damages in an amount of not less than Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00) for each abortion that the defendant performed or induced in violation of this act, and for each abortion performed or induced in violation of this act that the defendant aided or abetted
HB 4327 does NOT ban abortion
Let’s break it down: If you kill a baby outside the womb in Oklahoma with malice aforethought, you’d likely join Oklahoma’s 43 other death row inmates. However, if you kill a baby inside the womb, you’re probably going to walk.
We can’t stress this enough: HB 4327 doesn’t even institute a fine. The state of Oklahoma isn’t banning anything. The only thing it does is write a strongly worded law which opens up abortionists to lawsuits. Good luck proving it unless you were actually in the room while they murdered the baby.
Without the investigative power of the state, there is little in the way of proving an abortion took place. Worse yet, it will require private individuals and organizations to dedicate their resources to pursuing legal actions against murderers when this is clearly the responsibility of the state.
The bloody ‘compromises’ of HB 4327
As with lots of these bills, babies conceived by rape, sexual assault, or incest are still open season in Oklahoma. (pg. 5, lines 12-14) Any humanity of these children is completely disregarded by the state of Oklahoma.
Finally, the biggest and most glaring issue, the abortion pill is still completely and totally legal. This means a woman can still freely partake of pills that kill her baby, just like they are in Texas. This bill will not stop the usage of abortifacients, but increase their usage as ‘convenient’ loophole.
HB 4327 does NOT protect the rights of the preborn
Remember: To be pro-life, you must be “in favor of the preborn baby’s right to live” and for a law to be “pro-life” it must be “a law in favor of the preborn baby’s right to live.”
This law does nothing to protect a preborn baby’s right to live.
According to the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution:
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Oklahoma’s bill is not a pro-life victory. It denies the preborn human’s right to “equal protection under the law.” To celebrate this as a pro-life victory is like celebrating the Three-Fifths clause as a major victory for the rights of slaves. It’s not.
But those who introduced and passed this law are going to be touted as pro-life heroes. They are going to receive lucrative endorsements from religious and pro-life organizations along with an outpouring of donations as politicians who “banned” abortion in Oklahoma. But we know the truth: They didn’t do anything.
Oklahoma has set the price of a preborn human being at $10,000.
And all the pro-lifers clapped.
