The Oklahoma House on Tuesday gave final legislative approval to a bill that would turn the practice of abortion into a crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
With little discussion and no debate, the Republican-controlled House voted 70-14 to send the bill to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has previously said he would sign any abortion bill that comes to his desk. .
The bill is one of several anti-abortion measures still alive in the Oklahoma legislature this year. a trend of GOP-led states aggressive anti-abortion legislation as the U.S. Conservative Supreme Court is considering recovering abortion rights that have been in place for almost 50 years.
The Oklahoma bill, which was passed in the Senate last year, is only an exception for an abortion performed to save the life of the mother, said GOP State Representative Jim Olsen of Roland, who sponsored the project. Under the bill, a person convicted of abortion would face up to 10 years in prison and a $ 100,000 fine.
“Sanctions are for the doctor, not the woman,” Olsen said.
Similar anti-abortion bills passed by the Oklahoma Legislature in recent years have been stopped by the courts as unconstitutional.
The bill passed on the same day that more than 100 people attended a “Bans Off Oklahoma” rally in front of the Capitol in support of abortion rights.
Sean Murphy / AP
“These lawmakers have continued their relentless attacks on our freedoms,” said Emily Wales, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes. “These restrictions are not about improving the safety of the work we do. It’s about embarrassing and stigmatizing people who need and deserve access to abortion.”
Wales said the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Oklahoma has seen an 800% increase in the number of women in Texas after the state passed the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the U.S. in decades.
Texas law that went into effect last year prohibits abortion once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
Also Tuesday, the Oklahoma House passed a resolution recognizing the lives lost due to abortion and urging citizens to wave flags at half-mast on January 22, the day the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the abortion in its historic 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.
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