That didn’t take long.
On Sunday, The Free Press reported on a new bill by left-wing Oklahoma state Rep. Forrest Bennett, whose supposed intent was to make men responsible for at least half of the medical costs if they got a woman pregnant.
“If Oklahoma is going to restrict a woman’s right to choose, we sure better make sure the man involved can’t just walk away from his responsibility,” the Oklahoma City Democrat tweeted on Friday. The state, he added, needed to ensure “a father’s financial responsibility to his baby & their mom begins at conception.”
The subtext was that Bennett, in response to bills that would restrict abortion, oddly believed he was “owning” pro-life advocates not only by making men accountable for the children they father, but by doing so from the moment of conception.
Then, dawn alighted on this misguided partisan.
The day The Free Press reported on Bennett’s bill, reports surfaced that he had already withdrawn it.
A day after he snarked at the right, many reps of which applauded the lawmaker on social media after he announced the bill, Bennett realized he had really stepped in it with his progressive allies.
He issued a 16-tweet string to try to make amends.
Among the more relevant parts of that:
“Let me get this out of the way: obviously I’m not moving forward with this bill as written. I’m glad many of you understood the idea but it clearly needs work,” Bennett wrote.
“I’ll own this: I should’ve been more thoughtful & thorough in crafting this bill in the first place. It’s clear there are many unintended consequences, both from the language & design.”
Bennett went on to say that he neither intended or desires “to outlaw abortion & define life as beginning at conception.”
“The idea for this bill came from a conversation with someone I care about who experienced being abandoned by her partner when she was pregnant. She said ‘he got to walk away from it. I didn’t. How is that fair?’ It isn’t, and I wanted to help. But it’s not that easy & know that,” he added.
“I understand how the language in my message and bill both hurt the cause instead of helping it, and I apologize for not being more thoughtful. Thanks again to everyone who genuinely engaged with me in an effort to make better policy.”
The good news for Bennett is that Republicans in Oklahoma are interested in his bill and may give him an opportunity to vote on it.
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