Oregon Republicans Have Walked Out and Formed a Shadow Government Over an Abortion Bill
Republicans are simply "not engaging in their constitutional obligation to show up and do their job," a Democratic state lawmaker and physician told Jezebel.
Politics

On May 3, Oregon state Senate Republicans walked out of the Capitol and haven’t returned since, marking the longest walkout by lawmakers in the state’s 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 they’ve 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 2002—a 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 don’t usually can’t: “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.”