Oklahoma Passes America’s Most Restrictive Anti-Abortion Rule

First modification: 05/20/2022 – 02:35

The state of Oklahoma stands against abortion. The new draft territorial law prohibits any abortion, except when the life of the pregnant woman is in danger, or when the pregnancy is caused by rape or incest.

Another aspect of the regulation stipulates that health personnel or anyone who “helps or incites” to perform an abortion, is exposed to civil lawsuits and plans to punish even people from outside the state who help women of Oklahoma to abort.

It also contemplates “rewards” of up to 10,000 dollars for those who denounce the performance of a procedure of this type, as well as compensatory damages for, among others, “emotional anguish”.

The rule was approved by a large majority of Republican state legislators, with 76 votes in favor and only 16 against.

The local legislative body had already shown steps to restrict the interruption of pregnancy. Oklahoma leads the initiative against other states led by the Republican Party by imposing the most drastic measures since the approval of the constitutional right to abortion.

The state’s governor, Republican Kevin Stitt, has already hinted that he would sign what comes to his table on restrictions on the interruption process.

Oklahoma leaves Texas behind

The new mandate pending approval was written on the basis of the existing one in Texas, but corrected and increased, leaving behind the most restrictive of the measures written for this purpose.

There, the interruption is prohibited after six weeks of gestation or once the cardiac activity of the embryo can be detected.

According to the providers of this type of service, the measure will create certain obstacles for people for vulnerable sectors such as adolescents, who often do not realize that they are pregnant, immigrants, African Americans, low-income people and immigrants without legal status.

Through a release, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, described the entry into force of the measure as a blatant violation. “My administration is deeply committed to the constitutional right established in Roe v. Wade, five decades ago and will protect and defend that right,” concluded the president.

Supreme Court vs. Abortion in electoral context

All this network of restrictions comes to light in a dark context for abortion throughout the country, fueled by a recent leak that revealed the intentions of the conservative judges of the Supreme Court to annul the ruling Roe vs. Wade.

The ruling in that case is whereby the high court ruled that the US Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s freedom to choose an abortion without undue government restrictions.

The judicial body is expected to issue a verdict by the middle of the year, probably in June.

“Women’s rights are under attack,” said Vice President Kamala Harris in clear reference to the measures that were being taken regarding this legal aspect.

The issue has become one of the main campaign issues in the nation’s midterm elections, in which Democrats fear losing a majority in both houses of Congress.

President Biden has made a call to vote for congressmen and senators who are in favor of access to abortion.

Even the Democrats placed in the Senate a bill in favor of the procedure throughout the country, an initiative that only made noise on the walls of the Capitol, since they did not have the necessary 60 votes in favor of forcing the debate, but they did with enough noise to capture the attention of voters in favor of the measure.

A survey by The Washington Post and the ABC network, both US media, shows that 54 percent of Americans believe that the Supreme Court should maintain protection on abortion.

With EFE and AP