Journalist: Lina Quinones (TCC)
On the house floor Saturday was House Bill SE-512 or otherwise known as the “Pregnant Patient and Physician Protection” Act of 2026.
This bill is in relation to protecting those who are pregnant and those Physicians in medical emergencies where an abortion is made. This bill will protect those in these types of crisis since as of right now it is unknown territory for a lot of Physicians.
This bill was of course controversial as it brought up abortions and pregnancies. Which is a heavy topic here in Oklahoma.
One of the representatives that had an opinion on this was OSU Rep. Young.
While they do love the intent of this bill and wanting to help those pregnant and Physicians. There is an issue in one of the sections where it talks about sexual assault.
They state:
“the section about sexual assault is causing problems in um the idea that a person who has been assaulted would have to go to court to prove that they’ve been assaulted. Which often times often fails so it’s putting them in danger. One for publicly putting that information out there as well as retelling that traumatic event, which could likely fail. At this time rape kits last for three days, so after that there is no way to prove an assault has happened. Therefore it’s challenging that idea that these people have to prove themselves and in the case that it fails they’re punished for it. So it’s just like unfortunately that part of that bill.”
They continue to say that this is a huge issue that many of the house members care about. To the point that many house members see this issue. As well as Young’s opinion that this bill will fail, but it will be very close.
Young continues to state that while they’re still on the fence about this bill in particular. They are most likely going to choose to fail this bill.