Proposed Bill To Abolish Abortion Won’t Be Heard

A bill to abolish abortion in Oklahoma appears to be dead. At least for now. 

This is the first deadline week of the session, which means that policy bills that don’t make it out of committee by Thursday won’t be heard. That includes Senate Bill 13 that would have called for the abolition of abortion.

Hundreds packed the capitol a couple of weeks ago pushing for an end to abortion except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger. There would be no exceptions for rape or incest. The bill wasn’t heard in committee though.

“It’s not on the agenda today. I still am not supportive of it although I share the goals of the author,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat.

What that means, the bill’s author Senator Joseph Silk (R) Broken Bow said, is a calling for a suspension of the rules in a few weeks; bypassing the process of going through committee and bringing the bill right to the floor for a vote.

“As you know every year, they suspend the rules and bring bills straight out of committee or bypass committee straight to the Senate floor. So that’s what we’ll be advocating for. So essentially the bill is alive until the end of session.”

Alive, but on life support. It would require senators to first vote to suspend the rules, then for a majority of them to vote in favor of the bill. News 9’s Aaron Brilbeck asked Silk how much support he has among his colleagues.

“They’re just reluctant to talk about it either way. It’s just one of those things you can’t really argue against abolition,” said Silk.

This is the third time Silk has proposed similar legislation, and he said he’s optimistic it can be revived.

“Right.  No bills’ ever dead. That’s right,” he said.