The Oklahoma House passed a bill on Thursday by a vote of 77-18 to outlaw abortion drug trafficking in the state.
While Oklahoma outlaws abortions except to save the life of the mother, women have still been able to self-manage chemical abortions by using networks that ship abortion pills into Republican-led states or by obtaining the drugs from another person.
House Bill 3013 would penalize anyone who distributes or possesses with the intent to distribute abortion-inducing drugs when the intent is to cause an abortion for another person. The penalty could be up to $100,000 in fines, ten years in prison, or both.
“My goal is to protect the physical and mental health of women,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader, said in a statement. “This bill addresses people that are trafficking abortion-inducing drugs to young women with little to no thought to the consequences. all to make a profit from a woman during one of the most vulnerable times of her life.”
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The bill does not criminalize women who take abortion drugs to end the lives of their unborn babies. The bill also does not restrict Plan B or Morning After Pill and specifies that nothing in the text prohibits the use, sale, prescription, or administration of a preventive contraceptive measure, such as birth control pills or devices.
The definition of abortion in the bill does not apply to miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, or cases of accidental trauma or criminal assault of a woman and her unborn child.
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After the Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in June of 2022 — a decision which had invented a constitutional “right” to abortion for 50 years — some states have passed stricter laws regulating abortion, while others, run by Democrats, have loosened abortion laws and appealed to pro-abortion women in red states. For example, several states, including California, have passed bills shielding doctors who mail abortion pills into states with pro-life laws.
NEW: Justice Department OKs USPS, UPS, FedEx to carry abortion drugs to states w/strong abortion bans, offers limited assurances against federal prosecution. Story w/@AliceOllstein https://t.co/pVVu9bdQeU
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) January 4, 2023
At the same time, President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice has enabled USPS, UPS, and FedEx to carry abortion drugs into states with abortion limits — all while the Food and Drug administration rolled back in-person regulations, allowing women to receive a prescription for mifepristone via telemedicine. Some of the FDA’s rolled-back restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone are the subject of an upcoming Supreme Court case.
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Besides enabling by the Biden administration and Democrat-run states, a network of domestic and international abortion groups, like telemedicine nonprofit Aid Access and Las Libres, have been sending abortion pills to women all over the United States, including in red states.
“We sometimes see claims that these abortion bans have been successful in reducing the numbers of abortions in this country, and we do not believe that,” said Elisa Wells, a public health researcher and co-founder of the nonprofit website Plan C, which details 25 websites that sell pills and refers users to groups like Aid Access.
A study funded by pro-abortion organizations found by looking at Aid Access data that requests for self-managed abortions rose in states with abortion restrictions in the months after Roe was overturned. In Oklahoma, Aid Access allegedly saw an increase from 1.9 to 6.0 per 100,000 female residents in requests for abortion pills following the official release of the Dobbs decision.
HB 3013 now moves to the state Senate where it is sponsored by Sen. David Bullard (R). If the bill is signed into law, it would take effect on Nov. 1.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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