Two bills that further strengthen protections for preborn children passed through an Oklahoma House committee earlier this week.
House Bill 3013 would make it a felony to share or traffic chemical abortion drugs, punishable by a $100,000 fine and/or 10 years in prison.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader, said the legislation would not apply to doctors or pharmacists who legally prescribe the drugs or fill a prescription, but only those who are involved in distributing abortion pills without a doctor’s oversight.
“The concern is if someone else buys them and or procures them, however they do, and shares them with someone else, whether through selling or giving, with the intent to perform an abortion,” she explained.
Crosswhite Hader said her bill was meant to protect women who take the abortion pill without doctor oversight and therefore may not understand the risks involved.
“I stand again to try and protect the life of women who might take these pills and not know the repercussions of what it might do for them,” she said.
The bill passed the committee with a 5-1 vote and will now be considered by the full House.
House Bill 3216 would allow civil lawsuits against anyone who helps a woman procure an abortion, and would also create abortion reporting requirements for abortionists. It combines legislation that was previously overturned by the Oklahoma Supreme Court for being too vague. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Kevin West, said he worked to shore up the language so that it would not face legal challenges this time around.
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“What this bill is attempting to do is reinstate the bills the Legislature has overwhelmingly passed over the past couple years that have been overturned by the Oklahoma Supreme Court,” West said.
He noted that the bill doesn’t make any real changes to the state’s current abortion laws, but instead updates the language of the law to be more relevant for today.
“We’re relying on legislation that was written a hundred years ago… the medical community has changed drastically in that time. Definitions… you know, all of that. So… this is updated language,” he explained.
Abortion proponents are honing in on the fact that this bill could create a “database” of names of women who procure abortions, but West maintains that he simply wants to track abortion injuries and deaths. He said he is willing to change the bill’s wording to assuage those concerns.
“I didn’t personally read it like that… before I got into committee, but, you know, I respect the committee’s opinion on that,” he said.
That bill also passed committee 5-1 and will now go before the full House.
