Oklahoma, Yet Again

Not to be outdone by Texas in anything, Oklahoma is trying out its own bevy of anti-choice abortion regulations that will result in shutting down all but a few clinics in the state.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Thursday to apply new restrictions on abortions that lawmakers said are aimed at protecting women's health but opponents say are designed to shut down clinics.

The legislation includes a provision similar to one put in place in neighboring Texas that requires physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at an appropriately equipped hospital within 30 miles of their practice.

The Republican lawmaker who wrote the legislation, Mike Ritze, a physician, said his goal was to ensure women who experience complications like hemorrhaging, can have access to hospital care immediately.

"If the federal law is going to allow abortions, the state has a responsibility to our citizens to ensure those procedures are done as safely as possible," Ritze said.

The bill also requires abortion clinics to meet heightened building standards, bans abortion after 20 weeks, and requires strict adherence to guidelines in prescribing abortion pills.

The process is working well here in Ohio, as Cincinnati's two remaining providers are fighting court battles just to stay open.  Texas has already lost dozens of providers, and once again, small government conservatives are using the power of government to regulate women's bodies.  To death.

Your vagina belongs to the state.  Until what comes out of it is old enough to own a gun, that is.