Four States Passed Anti-Abortion Restrictions This Week
photo by Miki Jourdan on Flickr
The bills include extreme measures such as so-called “heartbeat bills”
This week, four different states passed extreme anti-abortion measures that will limit access to safe and legal abortions and likely put the health and safety of women in these states in jeopardy. The states, Oklahoma, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Florida, are part of a flurry of anti-aborition laws popping up in legislatures across the country as anti-choice advocates eye an opening to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, has done little to intervene and protect women’s rights, despite being carried to victory on the backs of women. While he has reversed some Trump-era policies including repealing the abortion gag rule on federally funded healthcare providers, he’s made no move to protect a woman’s right to abortion on a larger level, such as pushing for Roe to be codified. Instead, the administration has been too busy actively undoing other important civil protections for women, such as Title IX.
State Anti-Abortion Bills Passed This Week:
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed an anti-abortion “heartbeat bill” on Monday (HB 2441), in addition to two other bills making it harder for doctors to perform abortions (HB 1904 and HB 1102). Governor Stitt also signed into law SB 918, which would immediately outlaw abortions if the Supreme Court were ever to overturn Roe v. Wade. Such a law is known as a “trigger law,” and Oklahoma has become the eleventh state to enact one.
The new laws will require that doctors check for a fetal heartbeat before performing an abortion, and prohibit the abortion if a heartbeat is detected (usually around six weeks into a pregnancy). Most women do not even realize they are pregnant until weeks 4-7, giving practically no time for women to achieve a safe and legal abortion in the state. Doctors who violate the law may be charged with homicide.
The heartbeat bill makes exceptions in the case where the pregnant woman’s life is at risk or there is a “serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function” to the woman; however, it also states that this does not include “psychological or emotional conditions.”
The other signed bills would also require doctors performing abortions to be certified OB-GYNs and put them at risk of losing their medical license for performing abortions deemed not “medically necessary.”
Arizona
On Tuesday, Arizona’s Governor Doug Ducey signed a law making it a felony for doctors to perform abortions based on “genetic abnormalities” that are not considered “lethal,” except in a “medial emergency.” The bill also grants “civil rights” to embryos, and outlaws the mainling of abortion-inducing drugs.
This new law will force women to carry pregnancies to term and give birth against their will.
Idaho
Idaho joined the pack on Wednesday by signing into law another heartbeat bill which would make performing an abortion after the presence of a heartbeat a criminal felony punishable by up to five years in prison and result in the revocation of a doctor’s medical license.
According to CNN, the bill includes exceptions “for rape and incest if it has been reported to a law enforcement agency or child protective services and a copy of the report has been given to the abortion provider.”
Idaho women should take note that abortion is still legal in the state — due to federal circuit court rulings, the heartbeat bill will not be put into practice.
Montana
Montana added to the slew of bills with three anti-abortion bills signed into law this week. HB 136, the so-called “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” prohibits abortion after 20 weeks, even though experts agree that fetuses cannot feel pain until at least 24 weeks gestation. The other two bills, HB 140 and HB 171, requires abortion providers to offer the option to view ultrasound images and hear fetal heartbeats, and prohibits telemedicine for medication abortions, respectively.