Oklahoma to require restroom signs in anti-abortion effort

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Sean Murphy, Associated Press
Updated 3:00 pm, Tuesday, December 13, 2016



OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Oklahoma plans to force hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and public schools to post signs inside public restrooms directing pregnant women where to receive services as part of an effort to reduce abortions in the state.

The State Board of Health on Tuesday approved regulations for the signs. Businesses and other organizations will have to pay an estimated $2.3 million to put up the signs because the Legislature didn't approve any money for them.

The provision for the signs was tucked into a law that the Legislature passed this year that requires the state to develop informational material "for the purpose of achieving an abortion-free society." State Board of Health attorney Donald Maisch says the Legislature and governor must ratify the board's signage rules before they are scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2018.

Groups representing hospitals and restaurants are among those complaining that the new requirements are an expensive, unfunded mandate from the Legislature.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Oklahoma-may-require-restroom-signs-in-10792393.php

[metroins]

1. This sounds productive

I see nothing wrong with health places directing pregnant women to places with resources. Awareness and education is a good thing and this doesn't limit the right to an abortion. Unlike Texas and our new burial law.

It would be nice if the GOP cared about child after it was born. I think it's a little....funny?... that the GOP encourages poor people to have children, but then chastises them for not being able to feed the child. Then they barely fund CPS.

I'm not saying only poor people have abortions.

[arithia]

3. doctor's offices, sure. Not a damn Wendy's

Restaurants have no business telling women what to do with their bodies.

[Parker DeWitt]

4. I'm guessing

The signs will be telling them to go to a Christian "Pregnancy Counseling Center," which will browbeat them into not having an abortion.

[metroins]

6. Well that would not be good

I thought it'd direct them to SNAP, CPS, Social Security, Medicaid.

[Feeling the Bern]

10. You give these Republican fascist assholes waaaaaaay too much credit if you thought that.

[dhill926]

16. uh yup.....

[metroins]

18. Unfortunately, it's in my nature

I do tend to give the GOP the benefit of the doubt; as with most humans...I keep expecting them to be rational/normal people.

[hamsterjill]

20. Well, get over that.

Because they never are. If a Republican is doing something, it's always for an ulterior motive.

[Feeling the Bern]

21. I do tend to give the GOP the benefit of the doubt; as with most humans

There's your mistake. Republicans aren't human. Get over giving them the benefit of the doubt. They don't deserve it.

I keep expecting them to be rational/normal people.

As someone once said: Fool me once. Shame on. . .uh, shame on you. We can't get fooled again!

[arithia]

2. wow.

Talk about insulting to women.

How about signs in men's rooms that say "wrap it before you tap it"?

[Warpy]

5. Men never want to admit they're responsible for women needing abortion

and they like to whine about wearing condoms.

Male legislators will never approve such signs. They're a damned good idea, though, especially if there are condom dispensers in the rest room.

[arithia]

8. Oklahoma has a hell of an STD problem, too

But yeah, let's force scared, pregnant 15 year old to read signs every day at school about how they should keep that baby. SOMEONE will help them or the child to get ahead after they go through the emotional, psychological and financial expense of having a child they cannot afford.

That will surely fix society's problems more than contraceptive access. Ohwait...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/science/colorados-push-against-teenage-pregnancies-is-a-startling-success.html

These people are f*cked in the head. Seriously.

[Feeling the Bern]

22. The more "pious, God loving" and conservative a state, the more the STD, teen pregnancy and

HIV problems run rampant. Wow. . .who woulda thunk?

[TNNurse]

7. I suspect the graffiti on those signs will be interesting.

[arithia]

9. HAH!

100 Internets to you for that one lol

[TNNurse]

11. Even though I have never been to Oklahoma

and am well past the possibility of pregnancy.....I would get creative on those signs.

[Warpy]

27. I've been there a few times

Nicest people you'd ever want to meet but unbelievably dumb when it comes to politics.

But yeah, I think you'd have a lot of trouble reading the signs for the graffiti after the first week.

I also think they should make all the fucking asshole preachers pay for them, not the businesses. They're the ones who want to shame young women.

[rzemanfl]

12. Back in the late '80s I went to graduate school. In the men's room at the university I graduated

from more than 20 years earlier there was a condom machine. Next to it someone had printed neatly: "This gum tastes awful."

[Ilsa]

13. Talk about burdensome regulations! And what if

the sentiment is against the owner's religious beliefs? Will they permit exemptions? Will they permit other messages instead of the state's stupid signs?

What's the fine for not having a stupid sign?

[turbinetree]

14. Well has Thom Hartmann said today, how will the MSM handle this, they will not they are owned

lock stock and barrel by the right wing corporations telling them that if they report this stuff, they will cut off there funding source, and not one national news source will go to Oklahoma and ask why do you think it is appropriate to attack the right to privacy for woman, and do you really think it's appropriate to have it in bathrooms, is this not "propaganda".

This is just BS.
The state has 4.9 earthquakes from fracking, there AG is a big ass****, and the right to life governor thinks that its just fine and dandy to send people off to war and get killed ( what is wrong with that right to life logic from a plutocrat government).

And they think that paying a football, basketball coaches over 2.5 million is the way to go, when it comes to cutting public education, just like Kansas, and they have tornadoes to boot, but its not climate change.

And there water is turning into S***t hole because of fracking, but they are more worried about abortion and getting those signs up
(how much is that going to cost the taxpayers and the people that eat and S**T in the restaurants, hospitals, etc,,,,)------------amazing

And this state wonders why

[milestogo]

15. How about some signs in Men's restrooms?

Take responsibility for preventing unwanted pregnancies.

[MiniMe]

17. Nursing Home bathrooms?

Seriously?

[resistance2016]

19. "the Legislature didn't approve any money for them"

If they care so much about some damn cells, why can't THEY cough up the money out of their own damn pockets to put the signs up?
Cheap-ass hypocritical bastards!!
If this keeps up, my blood is going to consist of 100% alcohol!

[BigDemVoter]

23. Pardon me, dear liberal Oklahomans.

But your state is a cesspit of SHIT. Obama lost EVERY county in your state in 2012, and I'm betting that HRC did the same. I will not drive through your state or fly through your airports--not that there was EVER a risk that I would.

I can think of ZERO reason to visit EVER. I drove through one time, and that was PLENTY.

Now don't get me wrong. I come from an equally shitty state, and I'm an equal opportunity shit stirrer, so I'm equally hard on THEM.

[DeadLetterOffice]

24. I thought the GOP wanted LESS gov't regulation...

Oh right, that doesn't include women and bathrooms...

[yellowcanine]

25. Unconstitutional. Cannot compel speech. Basic First Amendment.

This will get slapped down by the courts.

[TeamPooka]

26. Next the GOP will mandate cameras in those bathrooms after all the graphitti written on the signs.

[Little Tich]

28. Horrible. n/t

[enid602]

29. they's backerds

Well, I guess that's one way to alleviate toilet clogs.