So, while abortion is still technically legal, any doctor who performs one in Oklahoma risks their livelihood.
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Physicians who perform an abortion could be charged with a felony and stripped of their medical license under the measure, which now goes to Gov.Mary Fallin.
“This is a watershed moment in the battle for reproductive rights”, Nancy Northup, president of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, told Richey.
The Oklahoma legislature has approved a bill that would make it a felony to perform abortions.
Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican opposed to abortion, has not said if she will sign it, according to Reuters. Nathan Dahm (R), said he hoped it could lead the Supreme Court to reconsider and overturn Roe v. Wade.
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In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case of an overturned Oklahoma law that would have required a woman to view an ultrasound of her fetus before an abortion.
The article added that there’s one physician in the state Senate, Republican Ervin Yen, who characterized the legislation as an “insane” measure that would invariably face a court challenge. In all, eight of the state’s separate anti-abortion measures have been challenged in court as unconstitutional in the last five years. But Fallin has signed some harsh anti-abortion bills in the past, including the establishment of a 72-hour wait period and a (later blocked) ban on the most common form of second-trimester abortion.
Opponents of Oklahoma Senate Bill 1552 say the proposed law, which seeks to criminalize abortion in the state, is unconstitutional in that it violates the landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade in January 1973 – which made the practice legal in the United States.
“Against a backdrop of a presidential nominee threatening to punish women for accessing abortion, Oklahoma’s new bill criminalizing this vital reproductive service is reckless and unsafe”, she said.
Essentially, the bill outlaws the performing of all methods of abortion within the state, clinical, clandestine or otherwise.
It is not yet clear whether Oklahoma’s governor will sign the measure into law.
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There are only two abortion providers in the whole state, and 96 percent of all Oklahoma counties have no abortion providers-well over half of the state’s women of reproductive age live in those counties. “The Center for Reproductive Rights is closely watching this bill and we strongly urge Governor Fallin to reject this cruel and unconstitutional ban”.
