An Oklahoma law criminalising abortion care as a felony with 10-year prison sentences and $100,000 fines for healthcare providers marks an “unconstitutional attack” on women’s health, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Kevin Stitt Senate signed Senate Bill 612 into law at a ceremony surrounded by anti-abortion advocates and faith leaders at the state capital on 12 April. If it survives anticipated legal challenges, it is scheduled to go into effect this summer following the adjournment of the state’s legislative session.
The law – which seeks to effectively outlaw abortion care in the state – also does not make exceptions for rape or incest, emerging as one of the most severe anti-abortion measures in the US amid a recent wave of restrictive legislation emboldened by an anticipated US Supreme Court ruling that could upend decades of precedent for women’s healthcare.
“Today, the country’s most restrictive legislation regulating access to reproductive health care was signed into law in Oklahoma,” Ms Psaki said in a statement on Tuesday. “This unconstitutional attack on women’s rights is just the latest and one of the most extreme state laws signed into law to date.”
The nation’s high court is expected to issue a ruling in the coming weeks on a Mississippi case involving a state law banning the procedure after 15 weeks, with the court’s six conservative justices signalling a readiness to uphold the law.
Precedent established in the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v Wade prohibits states from banning abortion before a foetus is considered viable outside the womb, which medical professionals determine is roughly 23 weeks of pregnancy.
The nation’s high court also has declined to intervene to stop a Texas law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
The US Department of Justice – as well as abortion providers and abortion rights advocates – filed challenges to block the Texas law. The Independent has requested comment from the department whether it intends to challenge Oklahoma’s law.
Governor Stitt is expected to sign another bill mirroring the Texas law – that measure would effectively ban all abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and bar physicians from performing or inducing an abortion at any point unless it is “to save the life” of the pregnant person. The bill includes an emergency clause that triggers an immediate effective date.
In her statement, Ms Psaki urged Congress to pass federal legislation that codifies the protections in the Roe ruling.
“Protecting the right recognized in Roe v Wade continues to be a priority for the Biden-Harris Administration, and we call on Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would shut down these attacks and codify this long-recognized, constitutional right,” she said.
Ms Psaki characterised the Oklahoma law as “part of disturbing national trend attacking women’s rights” and vowed that the administration “will continue to stand with women in Oklahoma and across the country in the fight to defend their freedom to make their own choices about their futures.”
