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Oklahoma Passes Extreme Anti-Abortion Bill

The bill makes it a felony to perform an abortion “except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.”

Oklahoma lawmakers have passed a bill banning the performing of abortions, effectively creating the most restrictive anti-abortion legislation in the U.S. just as the Supreme Court appears poised to ban the procedure. The state’s Republican-led House passed the bill 70 to 14 on Tuesday without any floor debate, months after the Senate passed it. The bill still needs the approval of Gov. Kevin Stitt, though he has said he will sign any anti-abortion legislation that appears before him. If signed, the bill, which makes it a felony to perform an abortion “except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency,” will take effect in August. It’s not only expected to affect Oklahomans; Texas residents had been traveling to the state to skirt that state’s anti-abortion law. “Nearly half of the patients Oklahoma providers are currently seeing are medical refugees from Texas,” said Tamya Cox-Touré, executive director of Oklahoma’s ACLU branch, said in a statement to The New York Times. “Now, Oklahomans could face a future where they would have no place left in their state to go to seek this basic health care.”