On Friday, the day that the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn Roe v. Wade, Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor certified that Oklahoma has officially banned abortion.

Gov. Stitt said, “When I ran for governor, I promised Oklahomans that I would sign every pro-life bill that came across my desk. I am thrilled to have kept that promise to get us to where we are today and I am proud to be called America’s most pro-life governor.”

Immediately following the Supreme Court’s decision, Attorney General O’Connor certified that Roe and Casey were overruled, banning abortion in Oklahoma.

“My first major act as Oklahoma’s Attorney General was to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn their decisions in Roe and Casey,” O’Connor said. “Today, in an historic opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court did just that.  After almost 50 years, and after the deaths of over 60 million children in America, the U.S. Supreme Court finally returned policy making on this life and death issue to the people.”

Oklahoma’s “trigger law” was passed last year (SB 612) and amended this year. Per the trigger law, the Attorney General has the duty of determining whether the U.S. Supreme Court has overruled in whole or in part Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. Then Oklahoma can enforce Section 861 of Title 21 of the Oklahoma Statutes or enact a similar statute prohibiting abortion throughout pregnancy. Section 861 is a 1910 law that makes intentionally performing an abortion on a woman a felony, punishable up to five years in prison, unless it is “necessary to preserve her life.”

State officials were never actually enjoined from enforcing it; rather, it was merely declared unconstitutional under Roe.

Simply put, Section 861 prohibits abortion in the short term, and Senate Bill 612, passed this year, will become the primary prohibition once the law takes effect on August 25, 2022. Until then, civil penalties could likely be obtained throughout pregnancy under House Bill 4327, which includes exceptions for rape and incest, and became effective May 25, 2022.

So, if you are in Oklahoma and you want an abortion, you better go to California, New York, New Mexico or some other liberal state.

Biden lied

In his address to the nation on June 24, President Joe Biden lied several times.

• Biden said the decision made America an “outlier” among nations. The truth is that many European nations have adopted laws against abortion similar to those in some states here. Italy doesn’t allow abortions after 90 days, or just under 13 weeks. France, Austria and Spain have banned the procedure after 14 weeks.
• Biden said he would stop state governments from making it illegal for women in their state to travel to another state for an abortion. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that isal ready not legal.
• Biden called abortion “health care.” It is not health care and certainly not for the unborn baby who is killed.
• Biden called abortion a “constitutional right.” Abortion is not addressed in the Constitution.
• Biden said he would stop governors from checking the medical cabinets of pregnant women for chemical abortions pills. That is rediculous.

States ban abortion

Abortion bans in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Alabama went into immediate effect. The laws make performing an abortion a felony punishable by years-long prison sentences. They do not make exceptions for rape or incest. However, women cannot be prosecuted for receiving an abortion under the laws.

They are also outlawing use of the abortion pill that ends pregnancies. The abortion pill, mifepristone, is approved in the U.S. to end pregnancies before the 10th week of pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration first approved the medication in 2000, but required women to obtain it in person under a program that monitors certain drugs for safety risks.

But that rule has been dropped.

In Tulsa, ever since the Texas heartbeat bill took effect, women have been buying the pill online and taking it illegally.

That probably won’t stop for a while.

Other states

New Mexico, which historically doesn’t have the best healthcare for people, is welcoming an onslaught of women seeking abortion, especially from Texas where abortion is banned.

In Kansas, the four abortion clinics are bracing for a bunch of women seeking abortions, especially from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Missouri. About 60% of the abortions in a clinic in Wichita are from out of state (mostly Oklahoma) and they were already swamped. That clinic is turning away half of the women who want abortions and they are hiring more abortion doctors.

People who cherish life have won a big battle but there is still a lot of work to be done to expand the abortion bans and to preserve our newly won victory over death.