NEWS - OKLAHOMA SENATE PASSES PERSONHOOD ACT. SAYING LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION

Oklahoma Senate passes Personhood Act, saying life begins at conception

After two hours of debate, the state Senate voted 34-8 for a bill that states life begins at the moment of conception.

 

BY MEGAN ROLLAND 

Published: February 16, 2012

The first bill of the session passed by the Oklahoma Senate was an anti-abortion statement that life begins at the moment of conception, approved by senators Wednesday after two hours of debate.
The practical effect of the bill is open to question. Its author, Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, said it's merely a statement that Oklahoma is “pro-life.” He labeled as fear mongering contentions by opponents that it could lead to restrictions on abortions, birth control, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research.
The Personhood Act, Senate Bill 1433, received international attention in the wake of a proposed amendment from Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Holdenville. The amendment said it was an act against unborn children for men to waste sperm.
“A lot of people thought that I was being facetious with my amendment in committee, and it was humorous and it has gotten international response,” Johnson said to her fellow senators.
“But I was serious as a heart attack. It wasn't until I used the biological and scientific references to those functions that somebody heard it. Maybe nobody in this chamber gets it but somebody heard that all we're asking for is for this conversation to include both individuals that are necessary to bring life about.”
Johnson, whose amendment was tabled, said she is sick of legislation that pries into the private lives of women with no mention of the men who are co-actors in the process of conception.
The bill passed 34-8 with several Democrats voting in favor.

Crain defended the bill he authored as a necessary step toward protecting Oklahoma's most vulnerable people, unborn children.
“The unborn have no voice of their own. We must be the voice of the unborn,” Crain said. “It will take us to the very limit of what the United States Supreme Court has deemed to be constitutional.”
He said the bill was a lobbyist request from the group Oklahomans for Life, but he would not name people who had sought the bill.
Oklahoma already has some of the strictest regulations on the books when it comes to abortions. Only three clinics in the state perform abortions, and the abortion rate in Oklahoma is lower than the national average, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
In 2008, about 10 out of every 1,000 women had an abortion in Oklahoma, lower than the national average of almost 20 abortions per 1,000 women.
“What would I do in the situation where one of my daughters found themselves with an unwanted pregnancy?” Crain said. “I would hope that my children would say, ‘Dad, I choose life. ... I would like to raise this child or I can't raise this child but I would like to bring this child into the world and then that child could be adopted.'”
Sen. Jim Wilson, D-Tahlequah, made a plea for the men of the Senate not to take that choice away from women.
“We say we're pro-life out here, but we don't do anything to limit pregnancies,” Wilson said. “We could do medically accurate sex education, but we choose not to do that. We could make birth control more available, but we choose not to do that.”
Related measuresThe bill, now headed to the House, is one of several the Legislature will consider that deals with abortion. SB 1274 requires that women listen to the heartbeat of a fetus before having an abortion.
House Joint Resolution 1067 would make the personhood issue a vote of the people.

THE BIG LOTTERY WINNER- A MountainWings Moment

The Big Lottery Winner
======================

How would you feel if you won the lottery?

I mean a really big one, like 100 million or so?

Pretty good huh?

That's what I thought.

If you won 100 million that would undoubtedly make your day.
It won't make your life; but I will admit, it will do a pretty good job of making your day.

It would be hard to convince anyone that you weren't very fortunate if you won a big lottery.

Which prize is greater: money or life?

Do you know how many sperm are released from the average male during the act of procreation?

Approximately 300 million sperm are released. Only one fertilizes the egg. Each sperm will produce a different person with different characteristics.

300 million sperm compete in a race to fertilize the egg.

The one that wins makes the baby.

You won.

Out of 300 million, you won.

You got life.

The lottery has odds of around fifty something million to one. You won a race with odds of 300 million to one.

You won a greater prize than money in a race with greater odds than the lottery.

You won life.

Studies have shown that most big lottery winners aren't as happy five years later. I have a friend who knew two people who won over 50 million dollar lotteries. I asked my friend, were your friends happier before they won or now?

My friend paused in deep thought as they compared in their minds their friends before and after their big win.

"They were happier before they won," my friend replied.

I know countless who have won the prize of life.

Unfortunately, they, like the big lottery winners, often end up sad.

The thing about life. . .Not only did you win the initial race, each morning that you wake up you've won again.

Don't be like the typical big lottery winner.

Celebrate the win.

Celebrate the day.

Recognize the prize.

Each day.


~A MountainWings Original~