Okla. lawmakers OK bill to make performing abortion a felony

Oklahoma's Senate passed a law Thursday that would criminalize abortion, an extraordinary measure clashing sharply with longstanding rulings from the nation's highest court.

Physicians who perform an abortion could be charged with a felony and stripped of their medical licenses under the act, which now goes to Gov. Mary Fallin. The bill becomes law in five days unless she vetoes it. Fallin said she has not decided what she will do, but legal experts say such a law could not survive a constitutional challenge.

Republican state Sen. Nathan Dahm, who proposed the law, said he wants it to become a driving force in bringing down Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.

“Since I believe life begins at conception, it should be protected, and I believe it’s a core function of state government to defend that life from the beginning of conception,” Dahm told the Associated Press.

State Sen. Ervin Yen, a physician who voted against the bill, called it “insane” and said he's certain the bill would face a court challenge.

"I'm Republican. I'm Catholic. I'm pro-life," Yen told USA TODAY after the vote. "But I think it is silly for us to pass bills in Oklahoma that can't go anywhere. It's a constitutional problem."

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Michael McConnell, a Stanford law professor and former federal judge appointed by George W. Bush, also expressed skepticism.

"No constitutional argument is available to support this bill under current precedent, and it is exceedingly unlikely that a majority of the Supreme Court would vote to overrule that precedent," McConnell told USA TODAY.

National abortion rights groups were quick to express outrage. The Center for Reproductive Rights said the bill is the first of its kind in the nation and called upon Fallin to veto it.

"Since Gov. Fallin took office in 2011, she has signed 18 bills restricting access to reproductive health care services," the group said in a statement.

Amanda Allen, lawyer for the center, said the measure represented "a new low," and called it "harmful, discriminatory, clearly unconstitutional, and insulting to Oklahoma women and their families."

NARAL Pro-Choice America sounded a similar theme.

"Against a backdrop of a presidential nominee threatening to punish women for accessing abortion, Oklahoma's new bill criminalizing this vital reproductive service is reckless and dangerous," said NARAL President Ilyse Hogue. "This bill puts doctors in the crosshairs for providing women with the option of exercising our fundamental right to decide how and when to start a family."

Donald Trump, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, recently said there "has to be some form of punishment" for women who have abortions. He later said he meant that "women punish themselves."

Contributing: Richard Wolf