Oklahoma: Abortion Without 24 Hour Prior Consent Now a Felony
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law an anti-abortion bill that requires doctors to notify women of the availability of perinatal hospice services as alternatives to an abortion. The Associated Press reports Fallin signed the bill Monday along with about two dozen others.
Republican state Rep. Randy Grau wrote the bill that imposes the new requirements. It is intended to provide an alternative to abortion for women who learn that a fetus has a condition incompatible with sustaining life after birth.
The Oklahoman reports that House Bill 2685 actually bans abortions unless patients provide consent 24 hours prior to the procedure being performed. Now that it is law, “knowingly or recklessly” performing an abortion without that consent is considered a felony.
Tony Lauinger, the chairman of Oklahomans for Life, heralded Fallin’s signing of the bill in a statement to the website National Right to Life News.
“Our throw-away culture today too often exhibits a coarsened attitude toward the intrinsic value of each individual human life – especially the life of a child with a diagnosis of severe or lethal disability – and too readily regards killing as an acceptable ‘solution’ in such a case,” he said. “The least we should do when a family faces the heartbreak of such a diagnosis is provide them information about the positive alternative of perinatal hospice, comfort care, and family counseling.”
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