The Oklahoma legislature on Thursday passed a bill that would allow doctors who perform abortions to be charged with a felony. It would also lead to any doctor performing an abortion to have his or her medical license revoked.
SB1552 passed the state's House of Representatives, 59-9, last month, and on Thursday it passed the Senate, 33-12. Republican governor Mary Fallin now has five days, not including Sunday, to take one of three options: sign the bill, veto the bill or allow the bill to become law without her signature.
The bill, the first of its kind, was authored 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."
However, Dahm's fellow senate Republican Ervin Yen, who is a medical doctor, called SB1552 "insane" and said, "It will be declared null and void" via litigation of it is signed into law.
Jennifer Miller, of the Center for Reproductive Rights, called the bill "unconstitutional" and asked Fallin to veto it, but she noted Fallin's past stance 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."
