A VICTORY FOR LIFE by Sen. Todd Lamb

The Oklahoma Legislature won a major victory for life last week by overwhelmingly voting to override Governor Brad Henry’s ill-advised veto of Senate Bill 1878, a bipartisan pro-life bill.

This legislation protects health care workers from being forced to assist in performing an abortion and prohibits minors from being coerced into having an abortion.

SB 1878 ensures that strict safety guidelines are followed in the dispensing of the dangerous abortion pill RU-486 and prohibits frivolous lawsuits that claim a baby would have been “better off” if aborted.

The bill also provides every woman with an ultrasound of her unborn child prior to an abortion, along with information about the unborn baby’s measurements and heartbeat.

Ultrasounds are already conducted in 99 percent of abortions. SB 1878 guarantees that a mother gets the information from the ultrasound and has the opportunity to view her baby on the ultrasound monitor. (Governor Henry erroneously wrote in his veto message that this provision requires a woman to view the ultrasound. This is factually inaccurate. No woman is forced to view the ultrasound.)

It’s the first time since former Governor David Walters was in office that the Legislature has successfully overturned a governor’s veto.

The Oklahoma Constitution requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Legislature to override a veto. This requirement was easily surpassed: Seventy-seven percent of state senators voted to overturn the governor’s veto, along with eighty percent of the House.

SB 1878 will become law on November 1. These new regulations are necessary to ensure that women have the information they need to be fully informed about their life-or-death decision. More information will hopefully result in more moms choosing life for their unborn babies.

It’s interesting that abortion providers so strongly opposed these common sense reforms – especially the requirement that a woman be allowed to view the ultrasound of her baby and be given information about the baby’s size and heart rate. Many of us suspect it may have to do with profit margins. Unfortunately, the abortion business is very lucrative. Is it any surprise that some abortionists would oppose a proposal that might lead more women to choose life instead of abortion?

It has been 14 years since a governor has been this out of touch with voters on such an important issue. I am not sure who Governor Henry was listening to when he vetoed SB 1878, but it certainly was not the people of Oklahoma. We have a representative form of government, and given the overwhelming support illustrated in the override, it is no doubt the people of our great state have spoken. Loud and clear.

As the author of Senate Bill 1878, I was very disappointed that Governor Henry opposed this common sense legislation. I’m very thankful to my colleagues in State Senate and House of Representatives – Republicans and Democrats alike – for taking a stand for the rights of the unborn and for the sanctity of life by overturning the governor’s unconscionable veto.