Oklahomans For Life
The Runoff Election will be held across Oklahoma tomorrow. Pro-life voters can get up-to-date information about candidates’ positions on pro-life legislation by going to our website, www.OkForLife.org, and clicking on “Candidate Surveys” at the top of the home page.
To learn your District numbers, click on “Find Your Legislators” at the top of our website home page. Enter your address and scroll down to U.S. Representative, State Senator, and State Representative. Your District number for each office appears just below “District Info.” Thank you for making the unborn child your priority when deciding for whom to vote!
Two important pro-life bills that we brought to the Oklahoma legislature this spring were passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate, and were signed into law by pro-life Governor Mary Fallin.
The pro-life Perinatal Hospice Bill, HB 2685, addresses the rare but tragic circumstance where a pregnant woman is told that her unborn child has a fetal anomaly incompatible with life. Often in such cases the mother is encouraged to consider abortion the “logical” or “humane” response to such a diagnosis. Under HB 2685, the mother would receive information about public and private agencies and services which offer perinatal hospice and palliative care if, instead of abortion, she carries her baby to term.
The least we can do when a family faces the heartbreak of such a diagnosis is provide information about the positive alternative of perinatal hospice, comfort care, and family counseling – the humane, compassionate, life-affirming approach embodied in HB 2685. There is an infinite difference – emotionally, psychologically, ethically – between losing a child and killing a child.
The pro-life Medical Treatment Laws Information Act, SB 1702, also enacted this session, will ensure that health-care providers are aware of Oklahoma laws relating to the provision of life-preserving care. There is anecdotal evidence that some in the health-care community (including the medical, nursing, hospital, and nursing-home communities) are not aware of some of the provisions of Oklahoma’s protective laws in this important area. The new law protects patients from a denial of life-preserving care caused by a health-care provider’s lack of awareness of existing laws.
Both the Perinatal Hospice Bill and the Medical Treatment Laws Information Act became law because of your support and encouragement to your elected representatives! Thank you for defending the most vulnerable members of our human family!
Tony Lauinger, State Chairman
