(Washington) The governor of Oklahoma on Wednesday promulgated a law prohibiting all abortions upon fertilization, making this conservative bastion in the southern United States the state with the most restrictive regulations in terms of voluntary termination of pregnancy.
Posted yesterday at 8:45 p.m.
“I promised the people of Oklahoma that as governor I would sign any pro-life legislation that came my way, and I’m proud to have delivered on that promise today,” the Republican said. Kevin Stitt, in a statement.
“In Oklahoma, we will always stand up for life,” he added.
Inspired by a law passed by Texas in September, this text, which comes into force throughout the State, opens the door to lawsuits launched by ordinary citizens against people suspected of having had an abortion.
The definition of abortion, according to the text, however, does not include “the use, prescription, supply, or sale of morning after pills, or any type of contraception or emergency contraception”.
This law had been passed by the Oklahoma legislature in mid-May amid threats to abortion rights by the Supreme Court, which, according to a document revealed by the media Politico, seems ready to go back 50 years. after its historic decision to protect abortion.
The organization Planned Parenthood, which defends the right to abortion, announced on this occasion that it was going to “sue Oklahoma”.
“This ban must be stopped — along with all the other bans this state has passed in the past month,” Planned Parenthood continued on Twitter.
On May 3, Kevin Stitt had already announced that he had signed a law prohibiting abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
“I want Oklahoma to become the most pro-life state in the country,” he said, using the phrase used by Americans opposed to abortion.
Oklahoma had been welcoming thousands of Texan women seeking abortions for several months, after the passage of a similar text in this neighboring state.
Even if it is supported by a majority of the population, according to recent polls, the right to abortion has been a very divisive social issue since the historic judgment Roe versus Wade of January 1973, which protects the right of American women to terminate their pregnancies.
In the event of a Supreme Court decision reversing this right, 26 conservative states, mostly in the center and south of the country such as Wyoming, Tennessee or South Carolina, are ready to ban abortion altogether. .