Oklahoma lawmakers have been on a tear the past few years to make theirs the state with the craziest forced-birther laws. Thursday they achieved that goal by passing Senate Bill 1552, to make abortion a felony. The vote was 33-12, with one Democrat voting for it and five Republicans voting against it. One of those five was Ervin Yen, the senate’s only physician, who labeled the bill “insane.”
He might also have called it flat-out unconstitutional. Despite what the nation’s forced-birthers have done to undermine it over the past 43 years, the Roe v. Wade ruling establishing the right to abortion remains the law of the land. At least as long as Donald Trump isn’t appointing the likes of David Pryor or Diane Sykes to the Supreme Court.
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The bill states:
A. No person shall perform or induce an abortion upon a pregnant woman. Any person violating this section shall be guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not less than one (1) year nor more than three (3) years in the State Penitentiary.
B. Any physician participating in the performance of an abortion shall be prohibited from obtaining or renewing a license to practice medicine in this state. The State Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision shall revoke the license of an allopathic physician performing an abortion in this state. The State Board of Osteopathic Examiners shall revoke the license of an osteopathic physician performing an abortion in this state.
There is an exception when the life (but not the health) of the pregnant woman is at risk. There are no exceptions for cases of rape, incest or when fetal anomalies makes survival outside the womb impossible. If the bill were actually implemented, lawmakers would have to fly mistresses, wives and daughters needing abortions to other states.
There was no debate before the vote Thursday, but during Senate debate on the bill last month, Minority Leader John Sparks, a Democrat from Norman, called a slightly different version of the measure unconstitutional on a number of grounds. “This bill will be reversed,” he said.
It wouldn’t be the first time. Three abortion laws passed in recent years by Oklahoma lawmakers have been overturned by the courts. The Oklahoma Supreme Court in March rejected a ballot initiative for an amendment to the state constitution that would, if voters approved, have made abortion a felony. The OSC ruled that the initiative violated U.S. Supreme Court rulings and that the state court "is not free to impose its own view of the law."
As representatives in the Oklahoma House deliberated the bill April 21, Republican Rep. Dave Brumbaugh, the chairman of the Republican majority caucus, sneered at objections the bill would mean more expensive litigation just as in previous abortion cases the state has lost. He said: "If we take care of morality. God will take care of the economy."