SALEM, Ore. — Two bills that stood at the center of a six-week Republican walkout in the Oregon Senate that ended last week passed the legislature on Wednesday, ensuring that they will go to Gov. Tina Kotek's desk to be signed into law.
Both reproductive rights legislation House Bill 2002 and gun control legislation House Bill 2005 were amended as part of the deal Democrats and Republicans struck to end the walkout.
As it stood prior to the walkout, HB 2002 would have allowed minors under the age of 15 to get abortions without notifying or gaining consent from parents, a major sticking point for Republicans.
The change proposed by Democrats stemmed in large part from existing vagaries in Oregon law. State statute specifies that Oregonians age 15 and older can make their own decisions about medical care, which has long been interpreted to include abortions. But the law does not clarify the procedure for minors 14 and younger — even in cases of rape or incest.
Where other states have something known as a "judicial bypass," allowing a judge to grant permission for an abortion in cases like these, Oregon law simply does not address the possibility.
As part of the agreement that ended the walkout, lawmakers amended HB 2002 so that it no longer gives minors under 15 carte blanche on making decisions about abortion, but it does not restrict that decision to parents either. The new version allows a medical professional to bypass parental consent if they reasonably believe that the child is unsafe at home. They can also proceed if they think that notifying parents "would not be in the best interest of the minor" and they get a second opinion from another health care provider at a separate institution.
The new version of the bill also took out funding that HB 2002 originally allocated for rural reproductive health care centers and abortion care at public universities.
A requirement in HB 2002 that insurance providers cover medically necessary gender-affirming care was left untouched in the amended version.
Before the walkout, gun control legislation House Bill 2005 proposed three main changes: making untraceable "ghost guns" illegal and punishable with both fines and jail time, raising the required age to purchase or own most guns from 18 to 21, and allowing cities the option to ban all firearms in public buildings and on public grounds.
The amended version that emerged after the deal cut the second two parts, leaving only the ghost guns portion intact. The bill spells out penalties for the sale, possession or purchase of things like 3D printed firearms and guns with serial numbers removed, as well as the illicit trade of unfinished gun frames or receivers.
Amended versions of both bills passed in the Oregon Senate last Thursday, immediately after work resumed in the chamber. Both needed to be sent back to the House for concurrence votes due to the amendments.
Floor votes at the Oregon Capitol were delayed on Wednesday due to technical issues that brought down the legislature's website and internal Wi-Fi. One lawmaker told KGW that it was the result of a firewall update after the massive hack that compromised the DMV data of about 3.5 million Oregonians. The outage brought legislative business to a standstill until shortly after 12:30 p.m.
HB 2002 passed around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in a 35-12 vote. Another 13 lawmakers were marked absent but excused.
Around the same time, lawmakers passed HB 2005 in a 34-14 vote. This time 12 lawmakers were marked absent but excused.
Both bills now head to Gov. Tina Kotek's desk, where she is expected to sign them into law.