Leaders of reproductive health groups at OU say Oklahoma Senate Bill 612 — which makes any healthcare provider performing or attempting to perform an abortion guilty of a felony — could push doctors out of the state, which would be detrimental to women’s health.
SB 612 passed through the Oklahoma House of Representatives on April 6 and would ban healthcare providers from performing or attempting to perform an abortion unless it would save a pregnant person’s life in a medical emergency. The bill defines a medical emergency as a physical disorder, illness or injury that “cannot be remedied by delivery of the child in which an abortion is necessary to preserve the life of a pregnant woman.”
Convicted individuals would be guilty of a felony, which would be punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, a maximum fine of $100,000 or both.
Gov. Kevin Stitt, who previously vowed to sign any anti-abortion bill that lands on his desk, is scheduled to sign the legislation at 9 a.m. Tuesday. According to the Tulsa World, if Stitt signs the bill, it would likely be immediately challenged as it comes in conflict with Roe v. Wade.
BreAnn Redcross, the co-president of Students for Reproductive Justice at OU and a women’s and gender studies junior, said SB 612 was first introduced last year but was revived about a week ago.
Most Oklahomans weren’t expecting SB 612 to be considered and passed so quickly, Redcross said. She and the Students for Reproductive Justice at OU had been tracking multiple anti-abortion bills from this legislative session alone — including HB 4327, which would permit private lawsuits against abortion providers and anyone who aids and abets a pregnant individual trying to get an abortion — and she said she was exhausted when SB 612 reappeared.
Because of Stitt’s commitment to support anti-abortion legislation, Redcross said the implementation of this bill seemed inevitable.
“Living in a conservative state like Oklahoma, it's kind of a feeling of being disappointed but not surprised when these bills are passed. … For me, I'd be more surprised if these bills were not passed,” Redcross said.
Kylie Hutchison, the Women’s Health Advocacy president and a pre-med and pre-PA microbiology junior, said her group recently joined the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition to push for the removal of the state’s tampon tax, which currently accounts for 0.01 percent of the state’s total revenue, according to legal group Period Equity. Women’s Health Advocacy has also been working with lawmakers, including Sen. Jessica Garvin (R-Duncan), to write related legislation.
The progress they’ve made caused Hutchison to feel more optimistic about Oklahoma’s government, and she said she was caught off guard by SB 612. Paired with other anti-abortion bills passed through the state House of Representatives recently, including HB 4327, Hutchison said it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the state government isn’t working for the benefit of women.
“They can't claim that they're for the people (or that) they're making laws to safeguard the health and wellness of people when they continuously pass laws and keep the state in 48th position in education, keep massive amounts of people below the poverty line, and now (are) basically putting bounties on women,” Hutchison said.
Pregnant people aren’t directly targeted by SB 612 but still experience the isolation of having reproductive health resources stripped from them, Redcross said.
Redcross referenced a recent American Journal of Public Health study on abortion policies between 2015 and 2018, which indicated that states with stricter abortion laws saw a 7 percent increase in total maternal mortality. States that require abortion providers to be licensed physicians, barring nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants from completing the procedure, had a 51 percent higher total maternal mortality rate.
Hutchison said SB 612 will trigger a “witch hunt” across the state, driving out a significant number of doctors that don’t want to be targeted. The majority of her pre-med classmates interested in the OB/GYN field have plans to leave Oklahoma after they graduate, she said.
“Why would you want to work in a state where you're going to be under constant scrutiny, the constant public eye?” Hutchison said. “If you make one wrong move or share an opinion that customers might not like, they can claim you gave an abortion.”
Redcross said anti-abortion bills are extremely dangerous because, instead of preventing abortions, they push many women to have abortions through unsafe means. According to the World Health Organization, 4.7 to 13.2 percent of maternal deaths can be linked to unsafe abortions. In developed regions, about 30 women are estimated to die for every 100,000 unsafe abortions.
Anti-abortion bans might also force women to travel to abortion clinics in other states, which sometimes require patients to wait a certain amount of time before having the procedure, Redcross said.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 33 states require patients to receive counseling before an abortion is performed, and 27 of those states require patients to wait a specific amount of time between counseling and their abortion. Redcross said this might be difficult for college students from Oklahoma who have to miss both classes and work during that time.
The OU community will always be a priority for Students for Reproductive Justice, but this bill makes it difficult to provide resources while keeping students safe, Redcross said. The group is affiliated with Planned Parenthood and wants to live by its motto — which is to “care no matter what” — even when the state’s reproductive health condition might seem hopeless.
University spokesperson Kesha Keith said in an email that while OU Health Services at Goddard Health Center isn’t an abortion provider and doesn’t take an official position on any specific medical condition or treatment, the treatment it offers is always individualized and between a patient and their medical provider.
Hutchison said OU students have generally been receptive to her group’s mission, but providing reproductive health resources is work that must be done, regardless of the potential backlash.
Hutchison also wants to work over the summer to create a map of abortion clinics in nearby states for community members, she said. Another map highlighting Greyhound bus routes to abortion providers outside Oklahoma, with states color-coded based on whether they have a mandatory waiting period, has circulated on Instagram since the passage of SB 612.
“(SB 612) is definitely going to make the women of both Texas and Oklahoma now have to search elsewhere, which is not possible for a lot of women if you don't have the transportation or even the monetary funds,” Hutchison said. “And that's really just going to push us back decades in terms of health and wellness for women.”
This article was updated at 8:29 a.m. to provide additional context surrounding HB 4327.
