Oklahoma Moves to Ban Nearly All Abortions

The Oklahoma legislature passed a bill Tuesday that would ban abortions statewide in nearly every case.

The Oklahoma House voted 70 to 14 Tuesday to pass the bill, which bans nearly all abortions except in the case of a medical emergency threatening the life of the mother. The bill punishes abortionists with fines up to $100,000 and up to 10 years in prison, though it does not authorize the prosecution of mothers for the abortions of their unborn children.

Emergency and morning-after contraceptives are not considered abortion under the law.

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, whose signature is required for the bill to become law, has signed numerous bills in the past year which ban abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, restrict abortion-inducing drugs, require abortionists to be board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and officially label abortion as “unprofessional conduct.”

Stitt has also signed bills banning fetal trafficking and requiring policies which respect the human remains of stillborn babies and babies who are miscarried.

“We want to be the most pro-life state in the country,” Stitt told the Daily Caller News Foundation in September 2021. “If other states want to do things differently, that’s what all 50 states are designed for, but I represent all four million Oklahomans who overwhelmingly support life.”