On Thursday, Oklahoma lawmakers passed a bill that would have made it illegal to perform an abortion—Doctors who performed the procedure could have received up to three years in prison. Thankfully, Gov. Mary Fallin quickly vetoed the bill, according to KFOR-TV.
Even Fallin has a history of supporting abortion restrictions, she said the bill “would not withstand a criminal constitutional legal challenge.” Given the existence of the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, it makes sense that a law making the procedure illegal wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny. And since we know that women get abortions whether it’s legal or not, the bill would have forced women seeking an abortion to go out of state or, in extreme circumstances, to find back-alley physicians willing to perform it.
All this comes just after lawmakers in South Carolina passed a bill that only allows abortions up until 19 weeks into the pregnancy.
While this bill didn’t get past the governor, the fact that we’re even still having this debate means it’s not looking good in terms of giving women all the choices we deserve.