While much of the nation was focused on the Alabama State Supreme Courts controversial decision regarding in vitro fertilization last month, Oklahoma lawmakers were engaged in an equally troubling matter, just as insidious and ominously Orwellian: a bill that would allow the state to create a database of every person who has an abortion in the state.

Under the bills original language, H.B. 3216 , any physician who performed a pre-viability separation procedure (translation: abortion) had to report it to the Oklahoma State Department of Health along with the date, gestational age, and reason for the abortion.

Further, the bill would have required the department to establish a confidential system to identify women who had a procedure not by name, but by assigning each woman a unique patient identifier. Under the bill, a womans identity could be released to authorities via a court order if legal action is deemed necessary. By whom is not clear. The abortion police, perhaps.

The bill also prohibited the distribution of any medicine, drug, or any
other substance prescribed or dispensed with the intent of inducing
an abortion. Physicians who knowingly violated this section of the bill could have their license suspended or revoked for a year and could be sued by the state for malpractice.

A companion bill, H.B. 3013 , would make delivering or possessing abortion-inducing drugs a felony, with penalties of up to $100,000 in fines or 10 years in prison.

Oklahoma bans abortion except to save the life of the mother. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. It is one of several states with laws stipulating that life begins at conception, or in some cases, fertilization.

But theres good news: Blowback has resulted in changes to the bill since being introduced in February. Its author, state representative Kevin West, pulled the section allowing for a statewide database, as well as another section of the bill banning contraceptives like IUDs and Plan B, the so-called morning after pill. West also added an amendment to the bill excluding IVF from any potential ban.

But the original language, and the idea that some elected officials supported the language, makes you wonder how they thought such draconian measures were OK and would pass legal muster. It bolted out of committee on a 5-1 vote. A vote on the Oklahoma House floor was scheduled for this month followed by one in the Senate, but the bills revisions may delay those plans.