Lauren Moye, FISM News
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Oklahoma passed two laws to restrict abortion within the state on Thursday. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican, has already said he will sign any pro-life legislation that crosses his desk. Once signed, the two laws will effectively create a Texas-style heartbeat law that is enforceable by private citizens.
The State House passed Senate Bill 1503, the “Oklahoma Heartbeat Act,” on Thursday to prohibit abortions after the detection of early cardiac activity. This usually occurs around the sixth week of pregnancy. The only exception legally permitted past this point would be a medical emergency that endangers the life of the mother.
The Senate originally passed this bill earlier this month with 33 “ayes” and 11 “nays.” In the House, there were 68 votes approving compared to 12 votes against it.
While the House passed the heartbeat act, the state Senate passed House Bill 4327. This bill allows for “any person” other than a government officer or employee to open a lawsuit against a person who performs or abets an illegal abortion. A successful lawsuit would result in “statutory damages not less than” $10,000 per abortion.
The Heartbeat Act creates a gestational limit to abortions, however the House bill’s wording outlaws abortions in all cases, unless it is necessary to save the life of the mother or the pregnancy, is the result of a law-enforcement reported rape, sexual assault, or incest. It was approved in the House 78 to 19 and 35-10 in the Senate.
“This bill will save many innocent lives by acting as a deterrent to those who perform abortions,” State Senator Julie Daniels, a Republican, said about the bill. “And we have an obligation to provide care and resources to women experiencing a crisis pregnancy.”
State Representative Wendi Stearman, who acted as the House principal author of the bill, stated: “This bill is about valuing life given by God. It’s important we protect the life of unborn babies from the moment they are conceived. While this bill may not completely stop abortion in our state, it will compel compliance by abortion providers as they will not be willing to face the statutory damages spelled out in this legislation.”
A couple of weeks ago, Oklahoma also passed a near-total ban on abortions which Stitt also signed into law. Senate Bill 612 codifies an illegal abortion as a felony with care providers punished by up to 10 years of prison time and up to a $100,000 fine. This bill only allows abortions to be used to protect a mother’s life.
“They’re all concerned about their elections coming up and making sure they have something they can put on a postcard to talk about,” Democrat state Representative Andy Fugate said to CBS News, commenting on a general increase in conservative acts.
However, Oklahoma has seen an 800% surge in women seeking an abortion who are traveling from Texas. These women now make up 9% of abortions within Oklahoma. This has upset many pro-life lawmakers who are pushing back against the trend and has contributed to the governor’s vow to sign all anti-abortion laws.
“That’s certainly not our intent to have Texans and people from other states flooding to our state to have abortions,” Stitt said while signing SB512. “Hopefully, this bill will hurt that.”
Both the Oklahoma Heartbeat Act and SB612 have already been legally challenged by abortion advocates and providers in separate lawsuits in an effort to stop the laws from coming into effect. These advocates have harshly condemned the pro-life legislation.
“It’s horrible. I can’t believe that this is where we’re at currently that we are forcing people to travel hours and hours and hours to just receive basic health care,” said one Tulsa-based abortion provider.
“We are more concerned at this point about these Texas-style bans because they have, at least recently, been able to continue and remain in effect,” said Emily Wales, interim president and CEO at Planned Parenthood Great Plains, to Today.
“The goal of this bill is to protect unborn children, and therefore we are telling everyone that abortion is prohibited except in limited circumstances,” Daniels said unapologetically about the Texas-style enforcement bill.