Summary: A bill that will make any doctor that performs abortions a felon is pending approval from the Oklahoma governor before becoming a state law.
Oklahoma has recently passed a bill that will criminalize abortion. The bill implies that anyone found to have performed an abortion except when it is done to save the life of the mother will be found guilty of a felony and up to three years in prison.
Gov. Mary Fallin will now decide if the bill will be signed into state law. She has five days to decide and if she does nothing, it will automatically become law. The Center for Reproductive Rights is urging her to veto the bill, calling it a “contravention of long standing federal and state constitutional principles as well as basic human rights.”
See Abortion Providers Get a Win in Wisconsin to learn more.
Oklahoma’s bill comes at a time when the Supreme Court is looking at abortions in Texas. The lone star state created a law similar to those popping up in other states that place restrictions on access to abortion clinics. Texas requires doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital and that clinics receive updates to be at hospital standards.
Read Abortion Takes the Stage Before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump was rumored at one point to be considering Fallin as a vice presidential candidate. If she passes the bill, she will be ruling in line with Trump’s views on abortion. Trump as said, “If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman.”
Do you think the Oklahoma law will stand up against appeals and possibly the Supreme Court? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
To learn more about the Texas abortion law, read Texas Files Emergency Motion to Enforce Abortion Law in the State.
Photo: upi.com