Conservative States Gain Ground in Effort to Criminalize Abortion
As Oklahoma lawmakers approved a tough new anti-abortion law, states are turning their attention to a new front: banning abortion pills.
Landwebs
The Oklahoma House has voted overwhelmingly for a Republican-sponsored bill that would make performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine, with the only exception being if the life of the mother is in danger, reports the Washington Post. The bill is scheduled to take effect this summer when the Oklahoma legislature adjourns, but its future will probably hinge on a Supreme Court decision expected this summer, when the justices will rule on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban in a case that could overturn or significantly roll back Roe v. Wade.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that abortion provided by pills is the new front in the five-decade-long fight to toss out the Court’s Roe v Wade ruling permitting abortion. Legislators have proposing more than 100 restrictions on medication in 22 states. Anti-abortion lawmakers in Texas passed a law making it a felony to provide abortion pills through the mail and states such as Missouri are attempting to reach beyond their borders to stop their residents from going elsewhere to get an abortion, by pill or by surgery. Already, 19 states prohibit pills from being prescribed by telemedicine or delivered through the mail and nine additional states are proposing to do the same. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, 54 percent of abortions in 2020 were by pills.
