Senator adds “Every Sperm is Sacred” amendment onto Oklahoma personhood bill

Amazing. After Oklahoma conservatives introduced a “personhood” bill to the state Senate on Monday, Sen. Constance Johnson decided to follow in Virginia Senator Janet Howell’s footsteps and attach an amendment in protest, which would add this language to the bill:

However, any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.

Jezebel adds that another pro-choice senator added an amendment:

Another pro-choice legislator, Democrat Jim Wilson, attempted to add an amendment to the bill that would require the father of the child to be financially responsible for the woman’s health care, housing, transportation, and nourishment while she was pregnant.

I second Erin’s contention that this new trend of legislators attaching snarky, ridiculous amendments to ridiculous bills that infringe on our uteri are kind of genius. It started just last week when Sen. Janet Howell decided to attach an amendment to a Virginia bill that would force a woman to have a vaginal ultrasound before an abortion — the clause being that men would have to undergo a rectal exam before getting Viagra.

Not shockingly, Howell’s amendment didn’t pass, and neither did either of these (Johnson even withdrew hers after making her point).  But while these amendments may not go anywhere, what it does — as Jill points out — is force the conversation, and point out just how warped and straight-up sexist this kind of legislation is. In short, if men were subject to the same kinds of invasive, ridiculously fucked requirements women are in order to be sexually active, they’d completely lose it. Keep ‘em coming, Dems.

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