Oklahoma state lawmakers voted to criminalize abortion Tuesday, approving a measure that may make performing the process a felony punishable by as much as 10 years behind bars.
The GOP-led Home voted overwhelmingly to ship the invoice to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who had pledged to signal it. It was handed by the state senate final yr.
The measure would make an exception provided that an abortion was carried out to avoid wasting the mom, lawmakers stated.
Docs who carry out abortions beneath different circumstances would face a $100,000 fantastic along with an extended jail sentence. Sufferers wouldn't be prosecuted.
“The penalties are for the physician, not for the lady,” GOP state Rep. Jim Olsen.
The proposal was the newest aggressive anti-abortion invoice launched by Republican-led statehouses since Texas banned abortions final fall, because the US Supreme Courtroom considers overturning a lady’s constitutional proper to an abortion, which was established in 1973.
Related payments handed by Oklahoma Metropolis legislators in recent times had been shot down by the nation’s excessive courtroom.
Lawmakers handed Tuesday’s invoice with little dialogue and no debate whereas additionally approving a decision that referred to as on state residents to fly flags at half-staff on the anniversary of the passage of Roe v. Wade.
The legislative motion got here as greater than 100 folks rallied exterior the capitol in help of abortion rights.
“These legislators have continued their relentless assaults on our freedoms,” stated Emily Wales, interim president and CEO of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains Votes.
“These restrictions aren't about bettering the security of the work that we do. They're about shaming and stigmatizing individuals who want and deserve abortion entry.”
Deliberate Parenthoods in Oklahoma had seen an 800% enhance in sufferers from Texas after the neighboring state banned abortion with out exceptions following the detection of a fetal heartbeat, the activist stated.
With AP wires
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