The Parliament of Oklahoma adopted, Thursday, May 19, a law prohibiting all abortion from fertilization, making this conservative bastion in the south of the United States the State with the most restrictive regulations in terms of voluntary termination of pregnancy. (IVG).
The vote comes in a context of endangering the right to abortion at the federal level. According to a document released by Politicothe Supreme Court of the United States seems ready to reconsider, fifty years later, its historic decision to protect abortion.
The law passed in Oklahoma will go into effect as soon as it is signed by Governor Kevin Stitt. The Republican had already announced that he would put his signature on any text imposing more restrictions on abortion.
Kamala Harris immediately denounced the decision of the Oklahoma legislature as “the latest in a series of blatant attacks on women by elected officials”. A few months before the midterm elections, the vice president called on Americans to elect leaders who will defend the right to abortion “at the local, state, and federal level”. “It has never been so urgent”she warned about Twitter.
Denounce those who have recourse to abortion?
Inspired by a law passed by Texas in September 2021, the text passed in Oklahoma paves the way for lawsuits launched by ordinary citizens against women suspected of having had an abortion. The definition of abortion, according to the text, however, does not include “the use, prescription, supply, or sale of morning after pills, or any type of contraception or emergency contraception”.
The Planned Parenthood organization, which defends the right to abortion, has announced that it will “sue Oklahoma”. “This ban must be stopped – along with all the other bans this state has passed in the past month”Planned Parenthood continued on Twitter.
On May 3, the governor, Kevin Stitt, announced that he had signed a law that already prohibited abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. “I want Oklahoma to be the most ‘pro-life’ state in the country”he said, using the expression used by Americans opposed to abortion.
Oklahoma had been welcoming thousands of Texan women seeking an abortion for several months, after the passage, in September 2021, of a similar text in this neighboring state.
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