The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Lawmaker who called pregnant women a ‘host’ pushes bill requiring fathers to approve abortion

February 14, 2017 at 4:36 p.m. EST
Oklahoma State Rep. Justin Humphrey prepares to speak before a Public Health Committee at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City on Feb. 14, 2017. Humphrey submitted House Bill 1441 requiring permission from the father before a woman gets an abortion. (Steve Gooch/The Oklahoman via AP)

A bill advancing in Oklahoma would require a woman to get the written consent of the fetus’s father before obtaining an abortion.

The bill, which passed out of a House committee Tuesday, would also require a woman “to provide, in writing, the identity of the father of the fetus to the physician who is to perform or induce the abortion,” according to the bill’s language. “If the person identified as the father of the fetus challenges the fact that he is the father, such individual may demand that a paternity test be performed.”