Oklahoma City, OK - Today, following the final vote to override Gov. Brad Henry's vetoes of HB 2656 and HB 2780, Oklahoma Democratic Party Chair Todd Goodman issued the following statement:

"On behalf of the Democratic Party, I commend Gov. Brad Henry for his courageous actions in vetoing two bills that would greatly infringe upon the established rights of Oklahomans. It took tremendous leadership to forge a clear path through waters muddied by Republican divisiveness and ambition, and I applaud Gov. Henry for his clear and rational consideration of the merits of these bills.

"Gov. Henry concluded that these bills are unlikely to withstand constitutional challenges, and he was correct in this assessment. One would impose an unnecessary and expensive medical procedure upon a woman, even those seeking help from a doctor after the trauma of rape or incest. The other eliminates consequences for reckless or negligent doctors who give pregnant women wrong information about their health. And both encourage government overreaching, masked behind a smokescreen of partisan ambition and contrived morality.

"Oklahoma is in the middle of our greatest budget crisis in decades, and yet what are Republican leaders choosing to do? Are they crafting a budget? No. Our legislature has spent hours considering these two bills, and our state attorneys will have to spend hours more – not to mention the cost in dollars – defending these bills, which are likely to be struck down in the courts.

"But not one minute has been spent on the floor of either chamber crafting our budget. Not one minute has been spent discussing how we're going to make the tough decisions to preserve public safety, to maintain educational standards, to keep our roads and bridges from crumbling and to make sure our state government and services don't fail.

"Our state budget should have come first, but Republican leadership in the House and Senate has put it last on their priority list – behind telling Congress how to do their job, behind pushing false moral choices and behind creating bullet points to put on their campaign materials.

"The budget cuts we face have literal life-and-death consequences, and they should have been discussed openly from day one. I challenge Republican leaders to drop all their other business and hold public discussions, with TV cameras present, on our budget until we have something that will keep Oklahoma strong."