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Communications Division For Immediate Release: March 22, 2004
Oklahoma was embarrassed on the national television program “60 minutes” Sunday evening when commentator Andy Rooney ridiculed Oklahoma for its high rate of divorce. “This is another national embarrassment for the State of Oklahoma. What makes this one really sting is that the Democrat leaders of the Oklahoma Senate have killed numerous bills to strengthen marriage in Oklahoma,” stated Sen. Owen Laughlin, R-Woodward. “Divorce is an epidemic in Oklahoma, but Democrat leaders are sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring this growing crisis,” he said. This year, Senate Democrat leaders refused to give a hearing to Laughlin’s bill allowing for covenant marriages in Oklahoma. A covenant marriage gives couples the option of entering into a stronger category of marriage that requires pre-marital counseling and makes divorces harder to get. Also this year, Senate Democrat leaders refused to give a hearing to a bill authored by Senate Republican Leader James Williamson, R-Tulsa, that would allow Oklahomans to vote on a constitutional amendment to protect marriage by defining it as between one man and one woman. In 1999 and 2001, Senate Democrat leaders failed to give hearings to bills by Senator Charles Ford, R-Tulsa, that would have prohibited “no fault” divorces in Oklahoma in cases where minor children are present. “The list of pro-marriage bills that
never see the light of day in the Oklahoma Senate goes on
and on. The Senate leadership bears a great deal of culpability
for Andy Rooney’s ridicule of our state,” Laughlin
concluded.
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