Republicans in Arkansas and Oklahoma introduced bills this week that would allow authorities to punish pregnant women for seeking abortion care. The law provides a chilling preview of what’s to come in a state that no longer has federal abortion protections.
Oklahoma Senate Bill 287 and Arkansas House Bill 1174 was proposed with the specific purpose of criminalizing anyone who performs an abortion. Oklahoma law the purpose to amend the state’s almost total abortion ban to remove language that protects pregnant women from prosecution. The Arkansas law would allow the state’s murder law to apply an aborted fetus and giving them protection from the process, while also repealing protection for those who “solicit, advise, encourage, or coerce a pregnant woman” to request an abortion.
Both bills include exemptions to preserve the life of pregnant women. But just as rape and incest are exempted from the ban in other countries, the wording is vague and would force people to die before they are allowed to receive life-saving treatment. Arkansas law also includes an exception for miscarriages, but that may be the case it makes no sense because abortion and miscarriage are medically indistinguishable.
This proposed legislation, if passed, would empower law enforcement and the legal system to scrutinize, monitor and criminalize not only those seeking abortion care, but those who become pregnant as well. And it can greatly discourage people from seeking medical care if they have problems with pregnancy.
HuffPost reached out to the sponsors of the two bills – Oklahoma state Senator Warren Hamilton (R) and Arkansas state Rep. Richard Womack (R) and Sen. Matt McKee (R) – but no one immediately responded.
Giving the go-ahead to sue pregnant people is a slippery and dangerous slope that will impact anyone who can get pregnant, said Farah Diaz-Tello, senior advisor and legal director at the non-profit reproductive justice If / When / How.
“If you can punish someone for intentionally terminating a pregnancy, that means you have to go through some process to determine if this is intentional or not. That’s called criminal prosecution. It’s an investigation,” he said.
“Anyone who can’t guarantee a healthy baby at the end of a pregnancy should undergo some type of investigation to make sure they didn’t intentionally do anything to interfere with the pregnancy or harm the pregnancy in some way.”
Currently, there are no legal obstacles to such legislation in anti-abortion states like Arkansas and Oklahoma, but challenges will arise if the bill passes, Diaz-Tello predicted. Pthe first person must be arrested, charged and prosecuted for the result of pregnancy, and then the law can face pushback in court.
Although the mainstream anti-abortion movement has long said it will not go after pregnant women — opting instead to criminalize doctors, health care providers and anyone who assists people with abortions — the tide is turning.
Opponents of abortion have been reinvigorated since last year’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion around the world. The move gives license to campaign on policy positions that would have been considered too extreme just two or three years ago. Limitation or prohibition of abortion six weeks without exception for rape or incest, which once taboo, now policies that can help Republicans win the primary.
According to many supporters of reproductive rights, the idea of criminalizing abortion seekers has caused conflict among opponents of the procedure. Bills in Arkansas and Oklahoma, too recent comments from Alabama’s attorney generalpoints to a growing faction in the anti-abortion movement that is moving in a more radical direction.
But criminals targeting pregnant women in this way is unprecedented. Prosecutors have used the law to criminalize hundreds of women in states like Alabama and Missouri for pregnancy outcomes even though Roe v. Wade is still in force. And lawmakers in Louisiana, Texas and Iowa have been working on bills targeting women who have had abortions.
“This perspective is not a new one. Now we are more aligned because the roe is falling,” said Diaz-Tello.
“People need to understand that the fences that the Constitution used are no longer there, so the stakes are higher now,” he said. “We can’t be asleep at the wheel. Everyone has to come forward and say this is not good.