Gov. Tina Kotek said Wednesday that her negotiations over the last week with Republicans boycotting the state Senate ended up in deadlock, after Republicans continued to insist that Democrats kill or substantially pare back a bill that would expand access to abortion and other reproductive care for children under the age of 15.
Kotek, a Democrat, said Democrats who hold a majority in both chamber of the Legislature are unwilling to make any changes to the bill substantial enough to convince Republicans and one Independent to return to the Senate floor.
“I’m reporting today my deep disappointment that we are at impasse with about a month left in the session,” Kotek told journalists at The Oregonian/OregonLive. “We are back at square one.”
The development increases the risk that hundreds of bills, including many with bipartisan support, will die.
Lawmakers face a June 25 deadline to wrap up work and Senate Republicans have said they plan to boycott until that date, then return for a marathon final day to rush budget and “bipartisan” policy bills through the chamber. Kotek said Wednesday that she is focusing on getting budgets ready to pass but is skeptical that lawmakers could actually complete all of their outstanding budget work in a single day. The governor also questioned whether Senate Republicans would truly show up on the last day of the session, given that Democrats could still hold a vote on the legislation to which Republicans object.
Conservative senators began boycotting floor sessions on May 3, denying Democrats the 20-member quorum necessary to conduct business. Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, of Bend, blasted what he called a lack of bipartisanship and “extreme” proposals from Democrats, including House Bill 2002 that would reinforce and expand reproductive and gender-affirming health care.
Oregon lawmakers enshrined abortion rights in state law in 2017, so the procedure has remained legal despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that struck down abortion rights on the national level. The state already has no laws requiring parental consent or knowledge of abortion, the Capital Chronicle recently reported. However, medical providers including Planned Parenthood and Oregon Health and Science University require patients 14 or younger to have parents’ consent.
House Bill 2002 would guarantee the rights of children of any age to access abortions, birth control, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and prenatal, delivery and postnatal care without their parents’ knowledge.
It would not change the age for children to access gender-affirming care. Oregon requires minors under the age of 14 to get a sign-off from their parents before any gender-affirming medical procedures.
The omnibus bill would add to the list of gender-affirming care procedures that health insurance companies would be required to cover, for example adding coverage for facial feminization surgery and any other treatments that a physician would prescribe as necessary.
Kotek said she had hoped to secure Republicans’ return to Senate chamber to allow votes to resume by compromising on other issues, such as reviving portions of Senate Republicans’ agenda of more than three-dozen bills. All of those bills died earlier this session, Kotek said. She was also trying to identify strategies to improve relations between the majority and minority parties.
“What I heard back was we can’t move forward unless House Bill 2002 is substantially amended or dead,” Kotek said.
Knopp told The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board Wednesday that Kotek wouldn’t entertain key demands during the talks, including substantial changes he sought to House Bill 2002.
Knopp says the bill undermines a parent’s right to be involved when their child younger than 15 seeks an abortion. Senate Democrats contend that it’s unclear after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to an abortion whether Oregon law requires parental input in such cases.
Knopp said he supports other provisions of House Bill 2002, including a portion protecting reproductive health care providers from out-of-state lawsuits or criminal charges, but that Kotek wouldn’t budge.
“There are not changes to the bill that would garner enough Democratic votes to make those changes,” Kotek said. “Democrats reflect the wide majority of Oregonians who believe in access to health care.”
Knopp also said Kotek wouldn’t negotiate on Senate Joint Resolution 33, a bill pushed by Democrats that would refer to voters a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to same-sex marriage, abortion and gender-affirming care.
Knopp only supports removing an almost two-decade-old provision from the Oregon Constitution that states “only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or legally recognized as marriage.” While that language remains in the state constitution, it hasn’t been enforced since 2014, when a federal judge deemed it unconstitutional. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all states must grant the right to same-sex marriage.
Kotek did not specify which health care procedures she believes a majority of Oregonians support. During last year’s election for governor, 65% of likely voters surveyed by the firm DHM Research described themselves as “pro-choice.”
In contrast, slightly less than half of the participants in a statewide survey of registered voters by DHM Research this spring said they thought health insurance companies should cover gender affirming care. Sixty percent said it should be illegal for health care professionals to provide such care to someone younger than 18.
Kotek said that Democrats’ determination to guarantee abortion access for all children, without parental notification, stems from concern for children who become pregnant as a result of rape by a parent or other family member who might be unwilling to sign off on an abortion.
“They deserve access to care,” Kotek said.
— Hillary Borrud; hborrud@oregonian.com; 503-294-4034; @hborrud
— Grant Stringer; gstringer@oregonian.com; @Stringerjourno
This story was updated Wednesday to include comments from Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp.