News & Commentary

No one deserves to be denied essential health care and forced to carry a pregnancy against their will.

While most Oklahomans are aware that our legislature is meeting, it can be hard to follow along with what exactly is happening--so much of what goes on inside the Capitol is shrouded in layers of process and jargon. So, for months at a time legislators move their priorities through the various chambers, titles move on and off, amendments are submitted with little time to review, and major deadlines mean sometimes more than 100 bills are heard in a day. A handful of bills get signed into law in these early months, but often it seems like a sprint to get bills across the final hurdles as a state budget is wrapped up in May, and the public gets toplines of the best and the worst through legislative wrap up articles or coverage around effective dates. In an election year, all of that seems especially true, with many bills moving along party lines for the sake of partisan talking points and political scorecards. But then, you have bills like Senate Bill 1728, which poses an entirely different kind of danger. 

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UN delegates, Joann Bell second from right

Representatives from four local ACLU offices joined Lenora Lapidus of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and Ashwini Hardikar of the ACLU Human Rights Program at the 51st Annual International Commiss