Missouri, nine other states take abortion rights to ballot box
The fight for abortion access on the ballot comes after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court more than two years ago.
One of the breakthrough issues in last night’s debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump concerned the future of abortion in the United States.
After the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion access reverted to a patchwork of state laws. With the status quo dissolved, some states have reexamined their own abortion laws.
Is abortion legal in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma’s current law makes abortion illegal and the procedure cannot be performed unless it’s necessary to protect the mother’s life.
Last year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court was asked to rule on several state abortion laws; only one survived scrutiny. That law written in 1910 punishes a person with two to five years in prison for administering or advising a person to end a pregnancy at any point unless it is “necessary to preserve her life.”
The post-Roe political landscape in Oklahoma triggered discussion about reinstating abortion access if the woman is a victim of incest or rape, but so far the state legislature has failed to address the issue.
More: Opinion: Oklahoma puts ideology before patients. Doctors can’t practice medicine because of it.
What did Harris, Trump say about abortion?
Vice President Kamala Harris attacked Republican efforts to restrict abortion during the debate Wednesday night. She referenced cases where restrictions and uncertainty about anti-abortion state laws have led to women being denied health care during a miscarriage and minors having to travel across the country to terminate a pregnancy after being raped.
More: ‘Oklahoma’s laws nearly killed me.’ Woman files federal complaint over state abortion law
“I pledge to you, when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law,” Harris said. “I think the American people believe that certain freedoms, in particular the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body, should not be made by the government.”
She also claimed that if Trump were elected, he would sign a national abortion ban and implement proposals found in Project 2025 that would boost the federal government’s abortion surveillance reporting system.
Trump replied that he’s not in favor of an abortion ban and said he wouldn’t have to sign or veto such a law because abortion is now a state issue. He has also claimed to not have anything to do with Project 2025, which is a massive policy document crafted by conservative organizations and dozens of people who served in the Trump Administration.
Some states will vote on abortion in November
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 10 states are planning vote in November on laws protecting abortion rights. Nebraska has two competing measures: One would recognize a fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability, and the other would ban abortion in the second and third trimesters with exceptions for rape, incest or medical emergency.
The closest Oklahoma will get to a vote on abortion will be their choice of state legislative candidates on Nov. 5.
More: Plenty big ticket votes await Oklahomans in November. But one key issue will be missing.
In Oklahoma, voters must register to vote by Oct. 11 if they want to cast a ballot this year. It’s also the deadline for verifying that your voter information is accurate and that you haven’t been purged from the rolls due to inactivity.
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Publish date : 2024-09-11 06:50:00
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