Oklahoma lawmakers have just passed a bill that prohibits nearly all abortions, with an exception for instances “to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.” The bill passed the state senate last year and passed the state house yesterday in a 70–14 vote, sending the legislation to Republican governor Kevin Stitt, who has promised to sign any pro-life bills that reach his desk.
Opponents of the bill say it will have far-reaching negative consequences, because Oklahoma is situated directly above Texas, which last fall enacted its Heartbeat Act protecting unborn children after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually around six weeks’ gestation. In the view of these activists and abortion providers, the law will make it impossible for Texas women to seek abortions in nearby Oklahoma now that it’s more difficult to do so in Texas.
But the truth is that once Stitt signs the bill, Oklahoma will face near-immediate lawsuits from abortion providers, and courts will block the law shortly thereafter. The fate of this law, and of the dozens of pro-life laws being enacted across the country, rests entirely in the hands of the Supreme Court justices, who will decide in this term’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization whether states may protect unborn children from abortion and whether its decades of flawed jurisprudence short-circuiting the state legislative process on abortion will be allowed to continue.