The rookie Oklahoma state senator who proposed making watching porn a felony and banning sexting among unmarried couples has drafted a bill that would charge women with murder for getting an abortion.
Sen. Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin) has filed a bill, dubbed the Abolition of Abortion Act, which seeks to “take the exception for prenatal homicide, which is abortion, out of the homicide code and make it give equal protection under the law to all lives from the moment of 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 nation to enact a ban in 2022. It only allows for the procedure in cases of rape, incest or if a woman’s life is at risk.
But under Deevers’ proposal, a woman would be charged for murder of her unborn child even in cases of rape or incest — or if she seeks to use an abortion pill.
“If a mother is pursuing malice aforethought to kill her pre-born child, then that should be illegal. It’s murder. However she chooses to do it, whether it’s through abortion pills or a coat hanger or hiring a hitman to kill her child,” said Deevers, who is also a Baptist pastor.
“We think that any life that is taken with malice aforethought needs to be protected and it needs to be treated as murder,” he said of those who support the bill.
“If you kill a person, then you’re a murderer and you deserve to have due process … like any other murderer.”
The bill does, however, include exceptions for women who get an abortion to save their life or if they are coerced into undergoing the procedure.
Women who have spontaneous miscarriages also would not be charged.
The measure has already gained 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 are opposed to the restrictive bill say it goes too far and is unconstitutional.
The state attorney general issued an opinion in November stating: “Oklahoma law does not allow the punishment of pregnant women attempting an abortion.”
“We’re extremely concerned,” said American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma executive director Tamaya Cox-Toure. “We know this is one of the most extreme, most dangerous anti-abortion bills we’ve seen.”
“We want people to get the care they need. But when we create these very limited and dangerous bills, with these limited exceptions, we know that has a true impact on just health care in general and pregnancy outcomes,” she argued.
Cox-Toure said the ACLU will continue to monitor the progress of the bill, as state Rep. Mickey Dollens (D-OKC) suggested it may pass in an election year.
“I know a lot of my colleagues, behind closed doors, despise legislation like this,” he said. “However, it’s an election year, so I wouldn’t hold anything back.”
Dollens suggested anyone who supports the bill file a state question instead, and let Oklahomans vote on the measure rather than lawmakers.
“We don’t want controlling politicians at the Capitol telling us what we can and can’t do with our bodies,” he said.
