Performing Abortions In Oklahoma To Become A Felony: New Bill
Doctors who perform abortions in Oklahoma will be charged with a felony, according to a new bill passed by the Oklahoma legislature on Thursday. The doctor's medical license would be revoked.
This is the first-of-its-kind bill, initiated by Republican Sen. Nathan Dahm.
"Most people know I am for defending rights," Dahm said. "Those rights begin at conception. I believe it's a core function of state government to defend that life from the beginning of conception."
Calling SB1552 "insane", Dahm's fellow senate Republican Ervin Yen, also a medico, noted: "It will be declared null and void" through litigation if it is signed into law.
SB1552 passed House of Representatives by 59-9, last month, while on Thursday it passed the Senate, 33-12. The Republican governor Mary Fallin will have to choose among three options in five days. She has to either sign the bill, veto it or permit it to become law without signing it.
Jennifer Miller, of the Center for Reproductive Rights, called for Fallin to veto the "unconstitutional" bill. However, she noted Fallin's earlier approach on "abortion-restricting" legislation.
"Since Gov. Fallin took office in 2011, she has signed 18 bills restricting access to reproductive health care services, including a Texas-style clinic shutdown law, a ban on the most common method of second trimester abortion, unconstitutional restrictions on medication abortion, and a law that forces abortion providers to perform an ultrasound and display and describe the image," Miller said. "Each of these laws have been blocked by courts; in fact, the Center for Reproductive Rights has challenged unconstitutional restrictions on reproductive health care in Oklahoma eight times in five years."
