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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOregon Republicans Have Walked Out and Formed a Shadow Government Over an Abortion Bill
On May 3, Oregon state Senate Republicans walked out of the Capitol and havent returned since, marking the longest walkout by lawmakers in the states prolific history of this happening. With the legislative session set to end in about two weeks, on June 25, Democrats fear hundreds of bills will be stalled until the next session. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans who have walked out have gotten so comfortable with their exiled state that theyve convened a shadow government of sorts.
As local Oregon outlet OPB put it, Republicans on Thursday convened an unofficial legislative committee solely to solicit and investigate complaints about alleged state Democratic Party corruption. When they opened the committee to public comment, OPB notes that every person who testified instead scolded the GOP over the walkout.
And what, exactly, has prompted Republican legislators to decline to do their jobs for over a month now? That would be HB 2002a bill to protect minors right to abortion care without parental consent and to expand the gender-affirming care procedures that insurance companies are required to cover. The expansive bill centered around bodily autonomy and health care would also shield abortion providers in Oregon from punishment or retaliation from other state governments for offering abortion care to out-of-state patients. This, state Sen. Elizabeth Steiner (D), chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and a family physician, told Jezebel, is essential to protect the many health care providers who are licensed in both Oregon and Idaho, where abortion is banned and providers can face prison-time.
Steiner, who says she [wears] both hats as a lawmaker and doctor, claims Republican critiques of the bill are mere political theater, as HB2002 only clarifies rights that already exist. As a physician, she notes that the majority of minors consult with their parents or guardians when seeking abortion care, and those who dont usually cant: That includes abuse victims who may have been raped by a family member, or who may be homeless or abandoned. She says the walkout over HB2002 is about Republicans wanting to undermine the outcome of the 2022 election, not accepting election results, not engaging in their constitutional obligation to show up and do their job.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/oregon-republicans-walked-formed-shadow-215100616.html
These Repukes live in a strange alternative universe.
Mad_Machine76
(24,353 posts)have lost their eligibility to run in the next election, I believe.
maxsolomon
(32,975 posts)I am skeptical.
Mad_Machine76
(24,353 posts)Is the SOS a Republican?
maxsolomon
(32,975 posts)The 14th Amendment Section 3 is the law, too. Sometimes there's no mechanism to enforce the law.
OR SOS Cheryl Myers is a Dem, but newly installed.
Mad_Machine76
(24,353 posts)somebody's eligibility to run? I am not naive enough to think that every single law on the books will be judiciously enforced, but otherwise what is the point of such a measure in face of such obstruction? If we don't address it now, why couldn't Republicans just keep doing it every session until they get what they want? Maybe people would eventually vote them out but then again who knows? Republicans would vote for Satan if he ran as a Republican before they would vote for a Democrat.
maxsolomon
(32,975 posts)It would cause a conflagration - which is probably what is needed. Lance the boil.
Mad_Machine76
(24,353 posts)the whole country really needs a collective enema, if you will.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 113 amending the state constitution by a 68-32% margin. The Oregon Supreme Court is probably not going to disturb the measure. Which means Republican state senators are going to have to ask the federal courts to intervene. I think that's unlikely as well, since "conservative" federal judges and justices generally leave state legislature matters alone, allowing the states to order their own legislators, determine eligibility to run for state office, and take measures to discipline elected officials.
The Republicans don't have a very deep bench in Oregon, and disqualifying every current Republican state senator from running again will hurt them very badly, which was what the voters decided they wanted to do with Measure 113.
MayReasonRule
(1,459 posts)It's what defines them.