Veto! Veto! Veto!

A special message from Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma's Director of External Affairs, Keri Parks:

Dear Friend,

Yesterday, the Oklahoma Senate passed five onerous pieces of anti-choice legislation which are now sitting on Governor Henry's desk. While we oppose all anti-choice legislation, we are extremely concerned with the following and believe the Governor will veto with your help. The anti-choice bills are:

House Bill 2656 allows a medical professional to intentionally withhold important medical information, fail to perform available tests, even when requested, or even lie about the results of testing to the parents of a fetus without fear of legal consequences.

House Bill 2780 requires that a woman seeking a legal abortion receive an ultrasound prior to the abortion; listen to a detailed description of what’s on the ultrasound screen; and be forced to undergo the type of ultrasound that will give the clearest picture (usually the more invasive transvaginal procedure), regardless of a doctor’s medical judgment and recommendations. While the woman may “avert her eyes” from the screen, she – and the doctor – have no discretion to decide if undergoing this procedure and listening to the mandated information is right for her.

House Bill 3284 requires doctors who provide abortions to grill their patients about minute and very personal details of their intimate lives and then report that information to the state. Even more disturbing, the state is then required to compile this information and post it on the internet, threatening the patient’s right to privacy and rattling the very core of doctor/patient confidentiality.

House Bill 3290 regulates RU-486 (the abortion pill) and recently added in the Senate, prohibits abortion coverage by private health insurance except to prevent the death of the mother or for cases of rape and incest. The need for medically-necessary termination of pregnancy is something that no family anticipates or plans for; but the purpose of insurance is to cover potential financial losses that we can't foresee.

Please call, fax or email Governor Henry today and ask him to VETO these terrible bills. You can follow this link for his information: http://www.governor.state.ok.us/contact.php

We have five days to convince him to veto!
Thanks for your help!

Keri Parks
Director of External Affairs
Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma
619 N.W. 23rd Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73103
Work - 405-528-0221
Fax - 405-528-1517