Earlier this week, an Oklahoma Republican launched SB 656, a bill to require that “the father or second parent of an unborn child” should pay for medical prices through the being pregnant of somebody they impregnated. Sen. David Bullard, writer of the SB 656, emphasized to The Oklahoman that the invoice extends from the legislature’s recognition that “life begins at conception.”
“All we’re saying is that either in the womb or outside of the womb, we want fathers to step up and start paying for their part of that creation,” Bullard informed the newspaper.
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If a “father” refuses to make these prenatal little one assist funds, they may face six months in jail on their first offense and as much as a yr in state jail for a second or subsequent offense. The invoice makes it clear the pregnancy-related “medical expenses” don’t embrace abortion (which is banned in Oklahoma).
We’ve seen this earlier than: Last July, shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Senate Republicans introduced the Unborn Child Support Act, requiring “fathers” of one-month-old embryos to make little one assist funds. Bills like this are purposefully deceitful, presenting as benign concern for pregnant folks’s wellness and even as “pro-women”—however they’re only a backdoor method to enshrine fetal personhood, which legally acknowledges embryos as folks whose rights can supersede the pregnant individual’s.
We’re already seeing this, after all—even earlier than Roe fell, there have been lots of of circumstances over the past a long time by which pregnant folks have been criminalized for self-inducing an abortion or miscarrying, and consequently being blamed for the “death” of their fetuses. Rogue prosecutors misuse fetal homicide laws to analyze, prosecute, and even jail folks for his or her being pregnant losses. When authorized personhood is conferred upon embryos, pregnant folks can turn into attainable homicide suspects in the event that they want emergency abortion care to not die, search out sure drugs, and even lose a pregnancy after being shot within the abdomen.
Under these circumstances, IVF, which requires disposal of unused embryos, turns into criminal; pregnant folks’s journey throughout state traces with out their accomplice’s consent turns into kidnapping; substance use or sure “risky” behaviors earlier than a baby is even born can turn into “child abuse.” In current years, per analysis from Pregnancy Justice, felony costs for being pregnant outcomes tripled since Roe was determined in 1973.
Bills like Oklahoma’s, in addition to Congress’ Unborn Child Support and Unborn Child Tax Credit payments, or perhaps a Texas invoice to let pregnant folks drive in HOV lanes, are explicitly marketed by their authors as valiant efforts to assist “mothers” get important lodging and assist. Of course, if that have been really their objective, they’d merely advocate extra funding for pre and post-natal care or a extra strong social security internet; actually, they’d assist abortion rights, so that each one moms and fogeys can be mother and father by selection.
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