Abortion to be considered murder in Oklahoma

Any physician who performs an abortion would be unable to obtain a license to practice medicine in Oklahoma under a measure the state Senate approved overwhelmingly Tuesday over the objection of some Democrats who insisted the measure is unconstitutional.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 40-7, mostly along party lines, to approve the bill by Broken Arrow Republican Sen. Nathan Dahm.

Anti-abortion activists packed the Senate gallery and applauded Dahm when he acknowledged the intent of the bill was to "protect the life of the unborn."

"I think this is one of the core functions of government," Dahm said. "All people have the inherent right to life."

The bill directs Oklahoma medical licensure officials not to renew or grant a license to any physician who performs an abortion. It also provides that any doctor who has performed an abortion can be prohibited from obtaining a medical license.

Senate Democratic Leader John Sparks said the bill would never withstand an inevitable legal challenge.

"It will be defeated in the courts at a cost to Oklahoma, and it will have no impact, other than political," said Sparks, an attorney from Norman.

Sparks successfully amended the bill to require the attorney general to disclose the costs of defending the proposal in court.

A New York abortion rights group has filed seven legal challenges in the last five years to various anti-abortion laws passed by the Oklahoma Legislature, and most of those laws have been overturned by the courts. Some legal challenges are still pending.

Anti-abortion activist John Reasnor of Norman stood outside the Senate chamber urging lawmakers to hear a separate anti-abortion measure that would make it a felony crime to perform an abortion. That proposal has not been scheduled for a hearing on the floor.

"I think it's a Christian obligation to seek out mercy for the least of us," Reasnor said.

The Oklahoma State Medical Association typically does not take a position on abortion-related, but has said it opposes Dahm's bill.

"As long as it remains a legal act, we oppose legislation that would penalize physicians for exercising their medical judgment," OSMA spokesman Wes Glinsman said in an email. "We oppose SB 1552 because it is just another attempt to intimidate physicians and to put politics in the middle of the physician/patient relationship."

The bill now heads to the House for consideration.

Meanwhile, a more extreme abortion bill passed committee recently according to a report by AOL. According to SB 1118 anyone who performs an abortion would be considered a criminal, guilty of first degree murder. State Senator Joseph Silk authored the bill. The first degree murder penalty was actually added after the bill passed out of the Health and Human Services Committee.

"Life begins at conception," Silk said. "Those human embryos deserve every bit of protection as a one-year-old child."

However, the bill is now stuck, held up by republican leadership at the Oklahoma State Capitol. Silk is shocked members of his own party are standing with Planned Parenthood and against SB 1118. Republican Senate leadership has so far refused to let SB 1118 be heard on the senate floor. "It's still being stopped, which is very very frustrating," Silk said.

If SB 1118 becomes law, abortion providers will face first degree murder charges. Senate leadership told Silk his bill goes too far. "Are you really pro-life if you can actually come out and oppose this bill for no reason?" Silk said. "Don't say you're pro-life and you believe life begins at conception if you are willing to allow 6,000 lives being murdered in Oklahoma every year."

Supporters are very vocal on their Facebook page. "A lot of legislators in Oklahoma don't trust women," said Democratic Representative Emily Virgin. "They don't trust women and their doctors to make those very tough decisions." Democrats, Planned Parenthood and a number of pro-life groups are standing against SB 1118 because it is extreme and it targets families who use in-vitro fertilization to conceive.

Sean Murphy of the Associated Press contributed to this story.

The Gayly- 3/9/2016 @ 5:03 PM CST