This week, a memo went out to librarians across Oklahoma County’s Metropolitan Library System telling them that not only are they not allowed to assist anyone in looking up information on abortion, but they are not even allowed to say the word — noting that if they violate this and are found to have assisted anyone in any way with getting an abortion that they will be fined $10,000 and possibly thrown in prison. The memo also warned that there will likely be people coming into the library and trying to trick them into giving information on how to obtain an abortion for the purposes of collecting the $10,000 bounty.
After the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, Legal reviewed MLS’s role regarding giving information on abortions and concluded that due to state law libraries have no role. Library staff should avoid the use of the word “abortion” and are not to assist in looking up information on either library PCs or even their own devices to aid in such a search. If a staff member gives any information on how to obtain an abortion, then that person may be found personally liable and will also make MLS liable. Civil penalties include a $10,000.00 fine, plus jail time, and the staff member will lose their job due to being informed by MLS and disregarding the warning. There may be people that go into public libraries and try staff on this just to see if they will give information on how to obtain an abortion just to report them (along the lines of 1st Amendment Auditors), so staff should be aware of this potentiality as well.