State house approves bill that would make performing an abortion a felony, and is one in raft of GOP bills to restrict or ban abortion
Highlights
- Oklahoma lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony punishable by 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
- The bill is one in a raft of Republican bills to severely restrict or ban abortion.
- Thousands of pregnant Texans have relied on legal abortion in Oklahoma since Texas outlawed abortion after six weeks gestation in September 2021.
- Planned Parenthood Great Plains’s caseload of Texas patients has gone from about four dozen from September to December 2020, to more than 1,100 in the same three-month period in 2021.
- A supreme court decision in a crucial abortion rights case is expected in June, but the fate of any such challenge and others like it are uncertain.