Oklahoma’s new state senator who proposed criminalizing porn viewing and banning sex between unmarried couples has drafted a bill that would charge women with murder for having an abortion.
Senator Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin) has filed a bill, dubbed the Abortion Repeal Act, which seeks to “take the exception for prenatal homicide, which is abortion, from the homicide code and make it provide equal protection under the law to all life from conception to natural death,” he told KFOR.
The state already has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country — becoming the first state in the country to enact a ban in 2022. It only allows the procedure in cases of rape, incest or if the woman’s life is at risk.
But under Deevers’ proposal, a woman would be charged with killing her unborn child even in the case of rape or incest — or if she tried to use the abortion pill.
“If a mother pursues an evil intention to kill her pre-born child, then that is haram. It is murder. However she chooses to do it, whether it’s through an abortion pill or a coat hanger or hiring an assassin to kill her child,” said Deevers, who is also a Baptist minister.
Senator Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin) has filed a bill, dubbed the Abortion Abolition Act, that would charge women who have abortions with murder. Greg Hilburn/USA Today Network / USA TODAY NETWORK
“We think that any life taken with malice should be protected and it should be treated as murder,” he said of those who supported the bill.
“If you kill someone, then you are a murderer and you deserve due process … just like any other murderer.”
The bill, however, includes an exception for women who have abortions to save their lives or if they are forced to undergo the procedure.
Deevers also proposed making viewing porn a crime and banning sex between unmarried couples. Reuters
Women who have spontaneous abortions will also not be charged.
The measure already has the support of state Sen. Warren Hamiliton (R-McCurtain) and anti-abortion activists who stormed the state Capitol on Tuesday to pressure lawmakers to adopt the bill.
But those who oppose the sanctions bill say it is overreaching and unconstitutional.
The attorney general issued an opinion in November stating: “Oklahoma law does not permit the punishment of pregnant women who attempt abortions.”
Oklahoma already has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. AP
“We are very concerned,” said American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma executive director Tamaya Cox-Toure. “We know this is one of the most extreme and most dangerous anti-abortion bills we’ve ever seen.”
“We want people to get the care they need. But when we do this very restrictive and dangerous bill, with these limited exceptions, we know that it has a real impact on health care in general and pregnancy outcomes,” he argued.
Cox-Toure said the ACLU will continue to monitor the bill’s progress, as state Rep. Mickey Dollens (D-OKC) has suggested it might pass in an election year.
“I know many of my colleagues, behind closed doors, despise laws like this,” he said. “After all, it’s an election year, so I’m not going to hold anything back.”
Dollens suggested anyone who supports the bill file a state question instead, and let Oklahomans vote on the measure instead of lawmakers.
“We don’t want politicians in control at the Capitol telling us what we can and can’t do with our bodies,” she said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
