If you have to use a bathroom in the state of Oklahoma, get ready to do it surrounded by anti-abortion propaganda. As part of an ongoing effort to limit abortion services, the state Board of Health is meeting on Tuesday to discuss a statewide mandate that would require anti-abortion signs be posted in restrooms in hospitals, hotels, nursing homes, public schools, restaurants, and other public spaces under regulation by the Department of Health, according to the Associated Press
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The signs were incorporated into the Humanity of the Unborn Child Act, a law that passed earlier this year with the intent to develop informational material to distribute to the public "for the purpose of achieving an abortion-free society." Included in the bill was the creation of signs encouraging women to carry a pregnancy to term. Intended to be posted in public restrooms by 2018, the signs would direct readers to the health department's website for a list of resources and include the following text:
"There are many public and private agencies willing and able to help you carry your child to term and assist you and your child after your child is born, whether you choose to keep your child or to place him or her for adoption. The State of Oklahoma strongly urges you to contact them if you are pregnant."
However, because the legislature passed the bill without allocating any state funding for sign creation—which will run the state an estimated $2.3 million—business owners and other Oklahomans are now opposing the measure due its cost (not its content).
"We don't have any concern about the information they're trying to get out to women about their babies and their pregnancy. This is just the wrong way to do it," Jim Hooper, president of the Oklahoma Restaurant Association, told the Associated Press. "It's just another mandate on small businesses. It's not just restaurants. It includes hospitals, nursing homes. It just doesn't make sense."
The bill's sponsor, Republican Senator AJ Griffin, agreed that Oklahoma lawmakers may need to revisit the scope of the planned statewide signage.
"I do see how it is going to need to be tempered a tad," Griffin told the AP. "We need to make sure we have something that's reasonable and still effective."
Tuesday's Board of Health meeting is intended to reexamine this aspect of the bill and determine how to cover the costs of this measure. Oklahoma isn't the only state in the nation attempting to spread anti-abortion literature to the public. Earlier this month, Texas published the latest edition of its "A Woman's Right to Know" pamphlet, a legally-required booklet for women seeking abortion services that perpetuates repeatedly-disproven myths about abortion. Twenty-two states besides Texas distribute similar literature to women, and a recent study from the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law revealed that roughly one-third of the information printed in these booklets is inaccurate.
