Oklahoma to require restroom signs in anti-abortion effort

[left-of-center2012]

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)-- Oklahoma plans to force hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and public schools to post signs inside public restrooms directing pregnant women where to receive services as part of an effort to reduce abortions in the state.

The State Board of Health on Tuesday approved regulations for the signs. Businesses and other organizations will have to pay an estimated $2.3 million to put up the signs because the Legislature didn't approve any money for them.

The provision for the signs was tucked into a law that the Legislature passed this year that requires the state to develop informational material "for the purpose of achieving an abortion-free society." State Board of Health attorney Donald Maisch says the Legislature and governor must ratify the board's signage rules before they are scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2018.

Groups representing hospitals and restaurants are among those complaining that the new requirements are an expensive, unfunded mandate from the Legislature.

Under the law, the signs would state: "There are many public and private agencies willing and able to help you carry your child to term and assist you and your child after your child is born, whether you choose to keep your child or to place him or her for adoption. The State of Oklahoma strongly urges you to contact them if you are pregnant." The signs would also include a link to the Health Department's website.

Don Maisch, an attorney for the State Department of Health who has worked on the rules, said the signage requirements apply to public restrooms of any entity that is regulated by the agency, including hospitals, hotels and motels, residential care facilities and most public schools.

(Even nursing homes will be asked to post these materials, which is strange to some, since the majority of that population is not exactly fertile.)