SHHHHHH! Oklahoma Librarians Barred From Even Saying The Word 'Abortion'

[niyad]

SHHHHHH! Oklahoma Librarians Barred From Even Saying The Word 'Abortion'
Robyn Pennacchia
July 22, 2022 02:54 PM


Over the last several years, conservatives have come to see themselves as great defenders of the First Amendment right to free speech, which they have taken to include not just government censorship but personal censorship, by other people who don't want to listen to them or who criticize what they have to say in any way whatsoever. It was certainly an unusual position for them to claim, particularly as they cheered for Donald Trump's plans to "loosen up the libel laws" (which would have required overturning New York Times v. Sullivan, probably the most important free speech SCOTUS decision in the last century) — but boy did they ever double down. Oh, how their at-will-employment-loving hearts broke every time someone was fired for being a bigot out loud, where people could hear them. Oh, how they've cried about "thoughtcrimes" and "doublespeak" and other terms they vaguely remember from the time they read 1984 in Freshman English, usually in the context of being expected to not be shitty to trans people.

And now, thanks to those same free-speech-loving conservatives, Oklahoma librarians are not allowed to say the word "abortion."
This week, a memo went out to librarians across Oklahoma County's Metropolitan Library System telling them that not only are they not allowed to assist anyone in looking up information on abortion, but they are not even allowed to say the word — noting that if they violate this and are found to have assisted anyone in any way with getting an abortion that they will be fined $10,000 and possibly thrown in prison. The memo also warned that there will likely be people coming into the library and trying to trick them into giving information on how to obtain an abortion for the purposes of collecting the $10,000 bounty.

After the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, Legal reviewed MLS's role regarding giving information on abortions and concluded that due to state law libraries have no role. Library staff should avoid the use of the word "abortion" and are not to assist in looking up information on either library PCs or even their own devices to aid in such a search. If a staff member gives any information on how to obtain an abortion, then that person may be found personally liable and will also make MLS liable. Civil penalties include a $10,000.00 fine, plus jail time, and the staff member will lose their job due to being informed by MLS and disregarding the warning. There may be people that go into public libraries and try staff on this just to see if they will give information on how to obtain an abortion just to report them (along the lines of 1st Amendment Auditors), so staff should be aware of this potentiality as well.

First of all, yes, we must digress: What the hell is a "1st Amendment Auditor"? Well, it's a person who walks around videotaping in a library, trying to trick librarians into asking them to stop doing that. Meanwhile, an actual literal walking violation of the First Amendment is requiring that this memo be sent. Second: It would technically be more legal for an Oklahoma librarian to assist someone saying they are a fiction writer with research on how to murder someone than it would be for them to help someone else find information on where they can get an abortion out of state.

. . . .

https://www.wonkette.com/oklahoma-librarians-barred-from-even-saying-the-word-abortion

[Irish_Dem]

1. Just like Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia.

Right out of the KGB handbook.

[niyad]

3. Exactly!

[Casady1]

2. In my opinion

you would get more people reacting to your posts if you did it just once.

[cbabe]

4. It's sometimes hard to discern which forum is best. And

multiple postings can lead users to new areas to explore. Led by a multiple post, I’ve visited new forums and learned even more.

[Casady1]

5. General discussion

[cbabe]

6. Yes. That's half of the issue. The other half is

opportunity to open new paths.

[Diamond_Dog]

7. This is the dystopian world Republicans have been salivating over.

It just keeps getting worse and worse.

[niyad]

12. Sadly true.

[yonder]

8. K&R here and K&R over there.

[niyad]

15. Thank you.

[Timeflyer]

9. Wait--what?

This policy is nuts. I'd like to see a librarian (maybe one who's nearing retirement) go to the mat on this and challenge this rule in court. I bet there are lawyers would would defend. How is looking up information on abortion worse than, say, looking up how to build an explosive device, or construct a ghost gun, or, I don't know, the latest manufactured conspiracy meant to manipulate Rethugs? How is this possibly legal--oh, I forgot the creeping fascism in some states.

[niyad]

13. Fascism no longer creeping in some areas.

[ShazzieB]

10. Just want to clarify something.

This week, a memo went out to librarians across Oklahoma County's Metropolitan Library System telling them that not only are they not allowed to assist anyone in looking up information on abortion..."

It sounds like this is one county in Oklahoma, not the whole state, as the headline implies. The legal department freaked out over the new law, overreacted a bit, then backtracked when the librarians threw a fit. (I'm reading between the lines, but I think that's what it means when the article says librarians "balked." Knowing what I know of librarians and how seriously they take their mission of providing information freely and being the guardians of the public's free access to it, I would have expected fits to be thrown over something like this.)

None of that makes this okay by any stretch of the imagination, of course. I just don't like it when articles exaggerate as much as this one does. This definitely points up, though, just how much some of these state legislatures are overreaching when they make laws about providing information to people. Most librarians are dedicated to the principle of intellectual freedom and would fight something like this tooth and nail and they would have the backing or organizations like the American Library Association abd the ACLU.

As awful as the abortion bans being passed in red states are, I think these states are opening up a whole new and even more heinous can of worms when they start legislating things like the availability of information and the right to freely travel between states. These lawmakers are megalomaniacs. They aren't satisfied with forcing people in their states to give birth against their will. They won't be satisfied until they can control the reproductive choices of ALL women, everywhere in this country. They make me sick.

[niyad]

14. I am hoping that you are correct. I know that our librarians are s/heroes, which

is one of the reasons they are being targeted.

The woman-hating christofascists do not just want to control women's reproductive lives, but every aspect of our lives.

Since it was Wonkette, we recognize the style. Like The Onion, it is getting harder to stay ahead of the insanity.

[niyad]

11. . . .