Free the States Statement on OK House Bill 3700

On Wednesday, February 23, the House Public Health Committee will hear HB3700, a bill similar to the recent Texas heartbeat bill. The Republican members of the committee who need contacted regarding HB3700 are Representatives:

• Cynthia Roe (Chair)
  • (405) 557-7365
  • Cynthia.Roe@okhouse.gov
• Toni Hasenbeck (Vice Chair)
  • (405) 557-7305
  • Toni.Hasenbeck@okhouse.gov
• Sherrie Conley
  • (405) 557-7308
  • Sherrie.Conley@okhouse.gov
• Dell Kerbs
  • (405) 557-7305
  • Dell.Kerbs@okhouse.gov
• Marcus McEntire
  • (405) 557-7327
  • Marcus.McEntire@okhouse.gov
• Carl Newton
  • (405) 557-7339
  • Carl.Newton@okhouse.gov
• Marilyn Stark
  • (405) 557-7403
  • Marilyn.Stark@okhouse.gov
• Wendi Stearman
  • (405) 557-7358
  • Wendi.Stearman@okhouse.gov

Please call and email each requesting their opposition to HB3700, and that they would coauthor HB4111 by Rep. Mark Vancuren. For easy copy and pasting, here are all their email addresses:

Sherrie.Conley@okhouse.gov; Toni.Hasenbeck@okhouse.gov; Dell.Kerbs@okhouse.gov; Marcus.McEntire@okhouse.gov; Carl.Newton@okhouse.gov; Cynthia.Roe@okhouse.gov; Marilyn.Stark@okhouse.gov; Wendi.Stearman@okhouse.gov

On Tuesday, Free the States delivered the following memo to each Republican member of the committee.

Re: House Bill 3700 to be heard in tomorrow’s House Public Health Committee hearing

Date: February 22, 2022

B A C K G R O U N D

HB3700 would establish that abortionists are liable to civil lawsuit if they murder a child whose heartbeat they detected when testing for a heartbeat according to standard medical practice. Abortionists would not be liable to civil lawsuit for murdering a preborn child as long as they do not detect the heartbeat of the child before murdering them. This act prohibits the State of Oklahoma from enforcing any prohibitions related to this act. The prohibitions contained in the act do not apply to the mother of the child.

A S S E S S M E N T

HB3700 Violates God’s Law: God’s word commands governing officials to treat all human beings equally. By only protecting children whose heartbeat is detected by the murderer, this bill shows partiality against those preborn children, which God’s word prohibits.

HB3700 Dehumanizes Preborn Children Without a Detectable Heartbeat: Because the law is a tutor, the partiality and discrimination contained in HB3700 serves to dehumanize preborn children without heartbeats.

HB3700 Denies Preborn Children Equal Protection: By providing only a fine against those who murder preborn children, this bill does not apply the same laws protecting born persons to persons not yet born. Further, this bill provides an exception to the prohibitions contained within it for the mother who seeks and authorizes the murder of her child. By giving mothers a license to kill, this bill denies preborn children the equal protection of the law and harms abortion-minded mothers by not using the law to guide them away from murdering their child. This, again, violates God’s law, and also violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which establishes that, “No state shall… deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Further, this immunity for mothers who murder their children perpetuates the rationale of Roe by implicitly affirming the concept that a woman has a right to murder her own child with impunity.

HB3700 Orders Oklahoma State Officials to Abdicate Their Primary Responsibility: As Romans 13 puts it, the government is supposed to bear the sword against evildoers, that those who might do evil would fear the consequences and be better citizens. As Thomas Jefferson said in an 1809 letter, “The care of human life & happiness, & not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” The State of Oklahoma must classify abortion as murder and treat it as such. HB3700 explicitly commands Oklahoma State officials to not uphold justice or treat abortion as murder: “No enforcement of this act…shall be taken or threatened by this state (P6, L7-15).”