A new Oklahoma state law will require physicians to post information about women who get abortions, including the:
1) Date of abortion
2) Country in which abortion is performed
3) Age of mother
4) Marital status of mother
5) Race of mother
6) Years of education of mother
7) State or foreign country of residence of mother
8) Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
The law goes into effect in November.
Dating Jesus 
I don’t understand the justification for this. I’m glad that names & addresses aren’t part of this, but still – why? and why spend money to do this?
I read where the concern was that in some counties, the population is small enough that one reading the list could figure out who had an abortion. And whose business is that? What purpose is served here?
That would be really bad. It’s no one’s business.
Interesting comments here:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/08/oklahoma-abortion-online/
I wonder what the rationale is for writing this law?
Phew. I dimly remember this same discussion going on with people with AIDS. In the name of gathering good data, people’s privacy can be breached. It’s never a good idea.
But AIDS can be contagious. I didn’t think pregnancy or abortion was.
Yes, but it was a whole issue with privacy. Basically, I’m talking about something I only kind of remember.
I see that #2 is “county” not “country” from Cynical’s link. That could definitely be used to identify an individual. So, will this push some women into having secret abortions without a physician? This law is horrible.
#6 was great:
“– – In which public square will they have the bonfire burning of these women?”
Says it all. What else could be the purpose?
And #3…
Will this information also be gathered for minors who have been raped? Will we all see that a 10, 11, 12… year old girl from _X_ county had an abortion? What is wrong with these people?
Probably will be struck down in the Federal courts. Let’s see Sonia Sotomayer get her hands on this!
This morning I went to the dentist, was asked to fill out a new information sheet. I declared that I am not pregnant, although a sexegenarian (of the male variety).
Funny, Jay. I recently went to a wedding between a woman who had had a hysterectomy and a guy who was almost a sexegenarian (a grandpa anyway), and the elderly priest still asked them to proclaim to the congregation that they would willingly accept any children that God gives them. They glanced at the crowd, shrugged their shoulders, and then agreed. What can you do but answer those silly questions?
And if you’d checked the “pregnant” box, you could have gone on television or joined a circus. Imagine!
Hey, god might grant them some grandbabies to raise!
You’re right. You just never know where children could come from besides the womb!
“Funny, Jay. I recently went to a wedding between a woman who had had a hysterectomy and a guy who was almost a sexegenarian (a grandpa anyway), and the elderly priest still asked them to proclaim to the congregation that they would willingly accept any children that God gives them. They glanced at the crowd, shrugged their shoulders, and then agreed. What can you do but answer those silly questions?”
There’s always adoption, of course. Or fostering.
In the Episcopal service, the priest states the purpose of marriage: “for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given to one another in prosperity and in adversity; and, when it is God’s will, for the procreation of children and their nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord.”
The couple doesn’t have to say anything to this.
That’a nice way to approach it, I think.
I really think this couple is done with raising children. But who knows, God may have other plans. During the service, when they looked back at the priest in shock, and then into the congregation, we couldn’t help but start laughing out loud.
Episcopal priest? Orthodox? RC?
Pre-marital counseling is required in the Episcopal church. One of the things we do, is go over the service from beginning to end. They shouldn’t have been surprised.
He was Roman Catholic. I don’t know if they did pre-marital counseling, but I doubt it. I know they didn’t have a rehearsal because that was done in the American Legion Hall the night before without the priest. The bride wasn’t Catholic so I suppose it was the groom’s church. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the priest just didn’t know or forgot or at least never mentioned it to them. They really did look surprised by the question. The priest looked about 90 and he repeated a reading that had just been done by a family member, so I bet he was on autopilot. He could probably do the ceremony in his sleep. It was kind of funny to see their reaction to that question.
Aha.
A rehearsal without the priest? I guess he was sleeping off his medication. (Cf. Clarence Thomas jokes).