And Republicans Complain About Big Government?

The Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act was originally scheduled to take effect last Sunday in the progressive State of Oklahoma. As a result of this legislation, the State Department of Health will now be required to publish data concerning all patients who have abortions performed in the state on a public web site. Any physicians who fail to provide such information will be subject to numerous penalties, including fines, criminal prosecution and/or loss of their medical licenses. (By the way, I use the term "originally" in my initial statement because the enforcement of this ridiculous law has fortunately been postponed due to a legal challenge from the Center for Reproductive Rights.)

Despite the numerous complaints, supporters of the Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act denied the fact that the legislation violates a patient's right to privacy and, in turn, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This legislation from 1996 mandates the establishment of guidelines which ensure patient information is "utilized in a manner that appropriately protects the confidentiality of the information and the privacy of individuals receiving health care services and items". However, these supporters continue to deny these privacy violations although physicians will be required to report, among other things, the following information on all abortion patients:

1. County in which abortion performed
2. Age of mother
3. Marital status of mother
4. Race of mother
5. Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
6. Reason given for abortion
7. Was the abortion necessary to save the life of the mother?
8. Did the pregnancy result from an act of forcible rape? or Did the pregnancy result from an act of incest committed against a minor?
9. If the female was a minor at the time of conception, please indicate the age of the father of the unborn child at the time of conception?

And these are just nine of the up to thirty-seven questions (with some of them requiring extensive details) that physicians will be required to answer for every patient. And although such detailed detailed demographic information would allow for the identification of certain patients, especially those women who live in small towns. But even with this glaring evidence staring him in the face, State Rep. Daniel Sullivan (R) , the Republican visionary who authored the bill, obviously has a different opinion: "There's no way a person can be singled out or identified the way it would be listed." Tell that to, for example, the fifteen-year-old African-American girl in the town of Davidson (population 0f 375 estimated by the United States Census Bureau in July 2007), who is being ridiculed after it was discovered that she had an abortion. The town of Davidson whose population, according to the 2000 census was 1.33% African-American. Yes, Mr. Sullivan, I am sure that no one could ever be identified from this site. With that being said, Sullivan's defense of the supposed actual purpose of the legislation may be even more offensive. Claiming the data generated by the new bill will be used to educate the demographics with high rates of unwanted pregnancies, Sullivan provided this statement to FOX News: "If there's something that we can do to positively impact that segment of that population -- and have a lowering effect on those rates -- then we want to be able to look at what policy decisions we can make."

Despite the absurdity of the Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act, this isn't the first time that the State of Oklahoma has attempted to enact an unconstitutional law regarding abortion procedures. Last year the state legislature passed a bill which required the following to be performed on every abortion patient (regardless of the situation):

1. Perform an obstetric ultrasound.
2. Provide a simultaneous explanation of what the ultrasound is depicting.
3. Display the ultrasound images so that the pregnant woman may view those images.
4. Provide a medical description of the ultrasound images, including the dimensions of the embryo or fetus and the presence of external members and internal organs (if present and viewable).

The law was introduced by Sen. Todd Lamb (R) because he "wanted to encourage life in society. In Oklahoma, society is on the side of life." (As if wasn't everywhere else.) Luckily this particular piece of legislation was overturned in August of this year by an Oklahoma County District judge because the law violated constitutional requirements.