Oklahoma lawmakers oppose abortion bills, including interstate travel measure

Oklahoma members of the U.S. House voted against a bill Friday to protect the ability of women to travel across state lines to receive abortions and also opposed broader legislation to legalize abortion in all states.

The House narrowly approved both bills; the Senate is unlikely to clear either measure. Most Republicans, including the five Oklahoma representatives, voted against the legislation.

“If enacted into law, these misguided bills would wipe from the books earlier state restrictions and require abortion on-demand nationwide at any point during a pregnancy,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore. “This is not only an outrageous attempt to strip individual states of their rights to determine such policy on their own, but it silences the voices of American voters, including thousands of Oklahomans, who cherish the sanctity of life and are opposed to abortions.”

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The House votes came a day after U.S. Sen. James Lankford blocked Senate legislation to bar states from preventing interstate travel to terminate a pregnancy.

“To be very clear: No state has banned interstate travel for adult women seeking to obtain an abortion,” the Oklahoma Republican said, though he acknowledged some lawmakers may propose such bans.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month struck down the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which established a federal constitutional right to abortion, and the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which affirmed the right. The court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization gave states the authority to restrict or ban abortion.

Oklahoma, which had effectively banned abortion in May with a law enforced through private citizen lawsuits, criminalized abortion the same day the precedents were overturned, making exception only to save a mother’s life.

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma City, a former state senator in Oklahoma, said in an interview this week, “I have supported rape and incest protections, as long as they report it to local law enforcement.

“My position now is that this is a state issue. They should be taking charge and putting some of these things forward if they feel like they are reasonable provisions.”

Bice said after the votes on Friday that the legislation was "unconscionable and would make American abortion policy more extreme than that of our European partners."

"I remain committed to providing resources and support for mothers who choose life," Bice said.

Some Democratic lawmakers talked Friday about the 10-year-old rape victim who was taken from Ohio to Indiana to receive an abortion after the Supreme Court struck down its precedents.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said “Republican lawmakers across the country are proposing laws to block women from crossing state lines to get the care they need and punish those, in their words, who ‘aid and abet them.’  Is this the United States of America?  Where Republicans in these states can say to women, ‘You cannot cross state lines for your own good health?”

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Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, said Democrats were trying to spread “fear, anxiety and misinformation.”

“It is already unconstitutional to prevent a woman from traveling between states,” she said. “The pro-life movement does not support and has always rejected criminalizing and punishing women − period.”

She said the bill on interstate travel would undermine parental rights and eliminate the requirement for medical supervision over chemical abortions.

The broader abortion rights bill would legalize abortion nationwide without some of the conditions imposed by many states, such as mandatory visits to the provider prior to receiving an abortion.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, said the decision about whether to have an abortion belongs “with the person who is pregnant.”

“My colleagues, if you believe life begins at conception, don’t get an abortion,” she said. “But that’s a belief, it’s not science and others do not share it. I don’t think anyone over here (on the Democratic side) would ever force someone with your beliefs to get an abortion. But you are forcing your beliefs on others and that is wrong.”

Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Arizona, said, “I find it ironic that the party that tells us to follow the science denies basic science that says life begins at conception … Passing this legislation would be a stain upon Congress. Women deserve better than this and so do their preborn babies.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma lawmakers oppose bill on interstate travel for abortion