Colleen McCarty protests personhood of the unborn

Colleen McCarty, the Democrat-turned-Republican candidate for Tulsa County District Attorney, was a prominent participant in a 2012 rally organized by pro-abortion forces. McCarty appears front-and-center wearing a pink T-shirt with the words "A CHOICE" printed in large letters across her belly. McCarty is holding a sign that reads "WHAT'S BEST FOR ME IS WHAT'S BEST FOR MY BABY. NO TO PERSONHOOD!"

The Daily Oklahoman covered the rally with a news story (current link here) and a video story.

The Oklahoman's news story featured a grinning Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre carrying a sign reading "IF I WANTED THE GOVERNMENT IN MY WOMB I'D F[***] A SENATOR."

Other signs at the rally: "Keep abortion safe and legal." "Keep your laws out of my womb." "If the fetus you safe is gay will you still fight for its rights?" "Forcing your agenda between my legs." "My body my choice."

McCarty appears in an Associated Press photograph, available on the Deseret News website, with the caption: "Colleen McCarty, Tulsa, Okla., cheers at an anti-personhood rally at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. The rally is in opposition to the state Senate's passage of a bill that grants the rights of personhood to fertilized human [eggs]. Susan Ogrocki, [Associated Press]."

She is quoted in the AP story:

Colleen McCarty, 26, a consultant and restaurant owner from Tulsa, said she would strongly consider taking her two businesses out of the state if the bill moves forward.

Six months pregnant and wearing a T-shirt with the words "a choice" printed over her belly, McCarty said she would not raise her daughter in a state where she would not have control over her medical decisions.

Some context: This was before the Dobbs decision. Roe v. Wade had not yet been overturned, but in the Casey decision the U. S. Supreme Court gave states leeway to place some restrictions on abortion, and pro-life legislators worked around the margins, short of a direct challenge to Roe, to gain ground for unborn children. The Personhood bill was one such effort. SB 1433, authored by Sen. Brian Crain, made the following legislative findings: "1. The life of each human being begins at conception; 2. Unborn children have protectable interests in life, health, and well-being; and 3. The natural parents of unborn children have protectable interests in the life, health, and well-being of their unborn child." The bill would have "The laws of this state shall be interpreted and construed to acknowledge on behalf of the unborn child at every stage of development all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state." The bill passed the State Senate by a wide margin, was favorably voted out of the House Committee, but it did not get a floor vote in the House. (Kris Steele, who later led the anti-prison group Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, was Speaker of the House at that time. McCarty was later Deputy Director of OCJR, working for Steele.)

Pro-abortion forces rightly saw this as a threat to their ability to kill unborn children and rallied to stop it. If an unborn child has the same rights as any other human, is considered a person under law, then it's as illegal to kill that child as it is to kill a toddler or a teenager. They attempted to get support from people outside the pro-abortion movement by claiming the bill was a threat to women who miscarried and a threat to in-vitro fertilization, but the bill had language addressing those concerns. McCarty is now claiming, through her social media apologists, like Broken Arrow Mayor Debra Wimpee and State Sen. Dana Prieto, that the bill was only about IVF or that IVF was why she was at the protest. (How McCarty has managed to hoodwink a number of conservatives is a subject for a later article.)

But note that Colleen McCarty's signs say nothing about IVF. They exalt her desires above the interests of her unborn child: "WHAT'S BEST FOR ME IS WHAT'S BEST FOR MY BABY." Her T-shirt declares that she should have life-and-death authority over her unborn child, who is merely "A CHOICE": If McCarty chooses one way, that belly bump is a baby, but if McCarty chooses the other way, her unborn child is just biohazard waste to be dismembered, extracted, and either incinerated or sold for parts.

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