By Farris Willingham, Editor-in-Chief
Debate about recent Oklahoma legislation prompted university students to raise awareness about the issue.
Students will host events March 7-14 to examine and protest Senate Bill 1433, commonly known as the “Personhood Bill.”
They will pass out literature with information about the legislation at 11:00 a.m. today outside the cafeteria. Click here for a list of events.
Phi Kappa Phi, the university’s honors society, will host a panel from noon to 1:30 p.m. March 9 in Kerr-McGee Auditorium in Meinders School of Business. Faculty members and Emma Velez, president of Student Government Association, will discuss the bill and its ramifications.
Other events include students writing letters to legislators March 12, a rally March 13 at the corner of 23rd and Blackwelder Avenue and a sit-in March 14 in Shdeed Lounge in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center.
A fetus at every stage of development has all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons and citizens of this state, read SB 1433.
Velez said, even though she represents the negative on the Personhood Bill debate, her priority is to educate people.
“All we really urge is that people make their own informed decisions about the bill and contact their legislators to express their thoughts,” she said.
The bill’s language is vague and could lead to Oklahoma’s congress enacting laws that could discriminate against women’s rights, Velez said.
“If Senate Bill 1433 becomes a law, all forms of abortion and various forms of contraception could potentially be considered murder and therefore be made illegal,” she said.
Legislators are elected to represent their constituents, Velez said.
“If they are misrepresenting their constituents, then, as citizens, we have a political right to speak out against acts like this that could be detrimental to a woman’s right to choose,” she said. “We live in a democracy where our voices, especially at the state and local level, can make a profound difference.”
Victoria Swinney, director of Dulaney-Browne Library, said she will represent the affirmative side of the debate at the panel discussion.
“I want to try to give people an idea of why it is that people believe abortion is wrong,” she said. “You can’t draw a line on a child having rights between when it is inside of woman and after.
“It is perfectly logical to extend those rights further back.”
There’s a gap between the views of academics and Evangelical Christians, Swinney said.
“We don’t get a chance to combine the two groups to speak in a way that each group can relate to,” she said. “It’s good to let people see the other perspective—that there is a logical reasoning behind it.”
Swinney said she is anxious about representing a group of people who do not have a large voice in academics.
“I do have a passion for the academy and what we do in education,” she said. “That’s why I do it even though I seem to have a different perspective than a lot of people.
“I expect to be a minority on this campus, but I don’t know to what degree.”
Regardless of students’ political affiliation, SGA President Velez said students should be informed about the issue.
Velez wrote a letter to Randy Terrill (R-Oklahoma), urging him to vote no when members of Oklahoma’s House of Representatives review SB 1433.
“If others disagree with me, that’s fine,” she said. “They have that right, but I urge people to really critically assess their own viewpoints.”
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