There was almost no debate Tuesday evening April 5 before the parliament of Oklahoma, an American state of 4 million inhabitants, located next to Texas. In a few minutes, bill number 162 passed like a letter in the mail: 70 votes for, 14 against. The text prohibits abortion except in one case: a medical emergency to save the life of the mother. It goes even further because any doctor, nurse or health personnel who would practice an abortion in other circumstances is liable to ten years in prison and a fine of $100,000.
The text must still be ratified by the governor of the state, Kevin Stitt, but there is no suspense since it is an ultraconservative who has pledged to sign all anti-abortion legislation. This is not the first attempt by elected officials in Oklahoma to ban abortion, but the previous texts have been deemed unconstitutional by the courts. On Tuesday, parliament also passed a resolution urging flags to be flown at half-mast across the state every Jan. 22 because that’s the day the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 legalized abortion. This is the famous Roe vs. Wade save.
This Oklahoma decision is the latest in a series of anti-abortion laws across the United States. This is a massive and rapid movement to deconstruct the right to abortion. For example, on March 24, Idaho, in the north of the country, authorized civil lawsuits against clinics and doctors who perform abortions. More generally, no less than 1,840 measures limiting contraception or abortion have been introduced since the beginning of the year in the United States, in 46 of the 50 states in the country.
The most important restriction is that of the vast Texas – 30 million inhabitants – neighbor of Oklahoma. Since September 1, abortion is prohibited as soon as a heartbeat of the embryo is detected. Concretely, this means between the fifth and sixth week of pregnancy, at a time when very many women do not even know they are pregnant. Since the adoption of this legislation, women in Texas seeking abortions had found refuge in Oklahoma, to now represent about half of the abortions performed in the state. So it will be over soon.
The next objective of anti-abortion activists is the banning of abortion at the national level. But it is on its way. The matter has been before the United States Supreme Court since last December. She must make her decision before June, on the Dobbs case against Jackson. It is, in short, to decide on another anti-abortion law, in Mississippi, still in the South.
With the appointment of ultra-conservative judges by Donald Trump, the majority has evolved within the Court. During the hearings, the magistrates, in their majority, seemed favorable to the text of the Mississippi. If validated, it will be the end of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The supreme court of the United States now appears more conservative than the American population itself.