Oklahoma Democrat Proposes Vasectomy Amendment

Oklahoma state senator Constance Johnson is awesome.  First, she attempted to attach an “every sperm is sacred” amendment to Oklahoma’s Personhood Bill. (That bill is currently tied up in court.)

Last week, Senator Johnson tried to derail the fetal heartbeat bill (SB 1274 “Heartbeat Informed Consent Act”) by attaching a vasectomy amendment to it.  Although the amendment was rejected, I’m posting about it because the bill language is amazing:

The Legislature finds that:

1. Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation over vasectomies;

2. There is substantial evidence that unregulated vasectomies result in fewer unwanted pregnancies and, by extension, fewer births;

3. It is patently unfair that men can avoid the rewards of unwanted fatherhood by presuming that their judgment over such matters is more valid than the judgment of the Legislature;

4. Fewer unwanted pregnancies result in fewer children living in poverty and a lower
prison population, and this is job killing in a time when social workers, police officers, and prison guards need the employment to feed their families; and

5. It is the purpose of the Legislature to assert an invasive state interest in the reproductive habits of men in this state and substitute the will of the government over the will of adult men.
[...]
2. No vasectomy is authorized or shall be performed in violation of this section.

3. In determining whether a vasectomy is necessary, no regard shall be made to the desire of a man to father children, to his economic situation, to his age, to the number of children he is currently responsible for, or to any danger to his wife or partner in the event a child is conceived. A vasectomy may only be performed to avert the death of the man or avert serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the man. No such condition shall be deemed to exist if it is based on a diagnosis or claim of a mental or emotional condition of the man or that the man will purposefully engage in conduct which he intends to result in his death or in substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.

More of these please.

(h/t @LbrlOkie77)