BY KAREN WEBB

Just in the nick of time state Rep. Sally Kern has decided to drop her attack on homosexual’s civil rights just long enough to attack women’s rights. She filed her “Women don’t have sense enough to make their own decisions resolution” on the last day to file legislation for this session.

That says a lot because she sticks to what she said a year ago – that the homosexual agenda was more dangerous than terrorism.

The only thing we have to fear is the fear that on Judgment Day, God might not be as hard on gays or women as she thinks he should, so she has to punish them now. There is always a chance that God created gays in his own image and God might be gay or a woman.

Since the right wing GOP is in control in the Oklahoma Legislature, maybe they should just call it a camp meeting at the Capitol – the Okie Inquisition.

She is ticked off at the Federal Freedom of Choice Act that President Obama has pledged to sign. She wants to be free to teach her interpretation of creationism as science to other people’s children and she wants to have the freedom to tell consenting adults who they can and can’t marry, and she wants to be free to force her interpretation of scripture on all of us. She has the only valid one. I have read the Baptist Faith and Message and she thinks she is right.

Freedom’s just another word for nothing left for Sally to use her self-righteous judge’s robe for.

Sally might have to give up legislating morality and go back visiting door to door, inviting people to come and hear her sanctimony in her husband’s church. She might have to actually attempt to teach people her views and have them on their own decide to do what she thinks God wants them to do out of true conviction.

“The federal “Freedom of Choice Act” would classify abortion as a fundamental right in the same category as the right of free speech and the right to vote. The new classification would in turn invalidate all state laws that interfere with abortion.”

Sally, I think I have heard something like this before. Yes, I am positive that Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, Ross Barnett and others said, “No, you have no right to guarantee our blacks the right to vote because that is interfering with our state laws.” That free speech angle is a strange argument when you are denying people the right to tell others about all forms of contraception.

Sally, women do have a fundamental right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and if that means making choices about their own bodies and getting you out of their OB-GYN examination room, so be it.

We can’t teach tolerance of diverse ideas in school because it denies Sally the right to be judgmental. She might not be able to call homosexuals terrorists.

“This act is an infringement on states’ rights. Abortion is not a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution but states’ rights are guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment,” Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said. “The Freedom of Choice Act would nullify our laws regarding abortion.”

Sally, my being allowed to control my own body trumps states’ rights as long as I am not raping or killing someone else. Sally being allowed to decide who consenting adults can marry is also not guaranteed by the Constitution.

According to Sally, the state of Oklahoma has the right to deny you information on birth control and then force you to give birth because she thinks that telling you about birth control will turn even the most devout girl into a slut overnight.

African-Americans would still be denied the right to vote in most southern states if States Rights had been allowed to rule. Slavery was legal and so was forcing your slaves to have sex with the master and selling other citizen’s families. By the way, they said the Bible supported their views.

“Kern’s House Joint Resolution 1009, if approved, urges the U.S. Congress to oppose the law, citing the states’ right to regulate abortion in an effort to protect women’s health.”

I hate to repeat myself, but Sally thinks she should be able to decide what your OB-GYN can tell you in his office. She seems to think that if you give kids the information to prevent pregnancy that they will immediately have sex, maybe before the school day ends. I know she has preached abstinence at church and kids are still not abstaining and it is frustrating to the tune of one of the highest teen birth rates in the nation.

“In the 2008 session, the Oklahoma Legislature overrode the veto of Gov. Brad Henry to pass a law requiring an ultrasound be performed prior to an abortion. Kern said it was the type of law that would be reversed by a federal “Freedom of Choice Act.”

I can tell my physician I don’t want an ultrasound even if I am carrying to term, but if I can’t afford to feed the kids I have or if something is horribly wrong with the fetus and I am considering avoiding a very short painful life for my baby then I have to have an ultrasound. They say I don’t have to look at it, but they can arrest my doctor if he doesn’t vividly describe it.

Sally just thinks we are all too dense to make our own decisions. I often wonder if she gets some sort of religious experience watching small infants suffer or from watching parents watch their infants suffer.

Oh, and she thinks that mental illness does not affect the health of the mother. Your daughter or wife can be suicidal and that doesn’t count. I have a relative who took an overdose in her sixth month and her son is still suffering at 15.

“This act would strip away our right to debate abortion policy in the state Legislature and support a radical ideology of unregulated abortion-on-demand,” Kern said. “Oklahoma’s lawmakers need to let Congress know how they feel about this measure.”

Sally, debate separation of church and state! Why can’t they debate ways to put their own sins into the Constitution? An amendment forbidding self-righteous or judgmental behavior might be good.

If Sally isn’t allowed to mind your business, as well as her own, she just isn’t happy.

Sally, it is possible to influence choice making, but refusing to give anyone a choice isn’t the way. She seems to think that women and girls will always make the wrong choice. The Bible even gives you a free choice to sin or not to sin and be judged on judgment day, but Sally can’t wait.

I will be calling Sally. Give her a call. Tell her you demand she stop speaking out in assemblies of men and start waiting tables because it isn’t wise for men to wait tables because they are supposed to be taking care of widows and orphans.

– Karen Webb lives in Moore, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer