Our Southern states are back it again with outrageous laws. This time the law is coming from Oklahoma's state legislature. What is this outrageous law, you might ask? It is an anti-abortion law stating that doctors who perform these procedures will be convicted of a felony and charged with up to three years in prison. We’ve already heard of states like Texas passing anti-abortion laws, but this is a direct violation of Supreme Law.
This issue had already been addressed by the Supreme Court where they ruled 7-2 that abortion fell under the right to privacy. Jane Roe was a woman who had tried to receive an abortion but was denied because of a Texas law. Many states at this time had similar laws banning abortion unless the life of the mother was at stake. Roe filed a lawsuit against district attorney Henry Wade of the federal courts, and the case was eventually brought up to the Supreme Court. In 1973, the court ruled in favor of Roe and that abortions within the first trimester was within a woman’s right to privacy.
This bill was in direct violation of that law so it came as a bit of a shock to many people. The bill was passed in essence to challenge the Roe v. Wade decision in hopes of that decision being overturned. Alas, the bill was vetoed by Governor Fallin of Oklahoma because the bill was too vague. No matter what the reason, this veto saved the rights of many women.
States all over the country have been trying to either ban abortion indirectly or decrease access to the medical facilities and services required for the procedure. Texas recently went up to the Supreme Court to try to uphold part of its' 2013 abortion laws that will reduce the amount of available clinics for women to receive abortions to approximately 10 clinics state-wide. The only way this law will be allowed to pass after the Roe v. Wade decision is if the defense can convince the court that this law will protect women. It mandates that clinics upgrade their facilities to hospital-like standards, which in hindsight is a good thing. However, many clinics will not be able to afford this change and will therefore not be allowed to perform the procedure.
Coming from such a conservative state, it is hard to believe that this law is to protect women’s safety. By reducing the number of clinics, women will have to travel farther and work harder to get a procedure that should be readily available, thus placing an “undue burden” on women. If this law comes to pass, it will pave the way for other laws like it in other states. This reduction in the accessibility to abortion could cause women to pursue more unsafe, unregulated means of termination of pregnancy. In essence, it could lead to a decrease in the safety of women seeking abortions.
The passing of this Texan law and others like it could breed negative consequences that we all need to be aware of. A woman's right to abortion is her right to privacy and that is what abortion is: a private matter. The government should not be allowed to infringe upon that right.
