Oklahoma House Approves Near Complete Abortion Ban, With Only Exception in Case of Medical Emergency

The law was approved last year by the State Senate and now the bill will be sent to Governor Kevin Stitt, who pledged to sign any law supported by state legislators.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives, currently controlled by the Republicans, approved on Tuesday a bill banning abortion in the state, even in cases of rape or incest.

The legislation allows abortions only in the case of a medical emergency. If signed into law, it would penalize abortion providers up to $100,000 in fines or up to 10 years imprisonment, or both, according to the draft bill.

70 lawmakers supported the legislation and 14 voted against.

Until recently, Oklahoma was a state where residents of Texas, where abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy was banned in September, went to receive the procedure. Local clinics were prompted to increase their capacity to meet the demand of 600 additional monthly patients, according to Chron.

Nearly half of all Texans who got abortions out of state between September and December went to Oklahoma, according to a study from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas at Austin. Other states where women have sought services in clinics outside Texas are New Mexico, Louisiana and Colorado.

Last month, legislators in Missouri, where the ability to terminate a pregnancy is severely limited, were said to be preparing a ban for state residents from getting an abortion, including those performed in another state. The bill would allow individuals to sue anyone who helped a state resident get an abortion, according to Politico.

If signed into law, the legislation would add Oklahoma and Missouri to the number of states seeking to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in every state. If the US Supreme Court, which is currently considering the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, rules in favor of conservatives, it would set a precedent reversing the 1973 ruling that orders all US states to legalize abortion.

The court's decision is expected to come in June. Since the Supreme Court is dominated by conservative judges, a number of states are now taking various measures to make abortion completely illegal, or to limit access to it.

Until 1973, abortion was illegal in most American states. The case of Roe v. Wade set a legal precedent prohibiting a complete ban on abortion by state law.