Oklahoma Senate Advances Bill to Ban Sex-Selection Abortions, Allow Reporting Info

From http://lifenews.com/state4065.html

Oklahoma Senate Advances Bill to Ban Sex-Selection Abortions, Allow Reporting Info

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 16, 2009

addthis_pub = 'sertelt';

Email RSS Print
Oklahoma City, OK (LifeNews.com) -- The Oklahoma state Senate on Wednesday approved a pro-life bill that prohibits using abortions for purposes of sex-selection. The House passed the legislation 93-4 in February and the state Senate followed suit backing House Bill 1595 on a 34-10 vote. The bill heads to a conference committee and then to Gov. Butch Henry.The measure also requires abortion practitioners to report certain information to the state health department. Under the bill the health department would put more abortion related statistics on its web site.
Sen. Patrick Anderson, a Republican, filed an amendment to remove the reporting requirements from the bill saying they violate the privacy of women having abortions, even though most other states report the abortion data and information without harming women. The Senate voted down Anderson's amendment under procedural rules.

Sen. Jim Wilson, a Democrat, also proposed an amendment to ban abortions in the state but that, too, was defeated under procedural rules.
Sen. Todd Lamb, a Republican, said the reporting requirements are needed to get information to help the state make policy to reduce abortions.
"I think the relevance of this legislation is to make a policy statement that Oklahoma supports the sanctity of human life," said Lamb.
Rep. Dan Sullivan, a Tulsa Republican, is the House sponsor of the sex-selection abortion ban, which he says is designed to stop couples from using abortion as a method of obtaining the gender of the baby they want.
"As designer babies become more prevalent, we must do all we can to ensure unborn children are not killed simply because a dad always dreamed of having a son," Sullivan said.
Sullivan also talked about the abortion reporting requirement aspect of the bill and said the state needs to be able to keep good statistics to help reduce abortions.
Abortion advocates opposed the bill and said it merely presents another barrier for women who want to get abortions.

A report from 2008 suggests sex-selection abortion is coming to the United States.
Researchers Douglas Almond and Lena Edlund published a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences saying that, even though the practice of sex-selection abortions is most commonly associated with the cultural mores of Asian nations like China or India, it is happening locally.
The report says the influx of immigrants to the United States has brought the grisly practice here and census data is beginning to show a slight gender imbalance as a result.
Asian culture values sons as they are looked to for carrying on the family name and inheriting property and possessions. In India, girls are seen as an expense that poor and middle class families can't afford due to costly dowries.

Related web sites:Oklahomans for Life - http://www.okforlife.org
Oklahoma State Legislature - http://www.lsb.state.ok.us