Oklahoma State Sen. Joe Silk just introduced a bill in the state legislature that would classify abortion as first-degree murder under state law, according to a report by Christian News Network.
S.B. 1118 reads, in part:
“No person shall perform or induce or attempt to perform or induce an abortion after conception,” it reads. “A person commits murder in the first degree when that person performs an abortion as defined by Section 1-745.5 of Title 63 of the Oklahoma Statutes.”
The bill also includes clear language explaining what constitutes an abortion and an unborn child:
"Abortion" means the use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, drug or any other substance or device to intentionally kill an unborn human being;
"Unborn human being" means the offspring of human beings from the moment of conception until either live birth or death, including the human conceptus, zygote, morula, blastocyst, embryo and fetus, whether conceived or located inside or outside the body of a human female; and
"Conception" means the fertilization of the ovum of a female individual by the sperm of a male individual.
According to Christian News Network:
The bill is stated to come as the result of a petition signed by over 30,000 Oklahoma residents, calling for lawmakers to immediately present legislation that would result in a complete end to abortion in the state.
“[W]e hereby respectfully demand that our state government stop protecting the murder of children by abortion within its jurisdiction and establish justice for all pre-born human beings in our state,” the petition reads in part. “We demand that our legislators stop passing laws to regulate abortion and instead outlaw all abortion as murder. ”
“We demand that these changes be made now—not five, ten or fifteen years down the road,” it continues. “In short, we the people of the state of Oklahoma demand the total and immediate abolition of human abortion as the legal, constitutional and moral duty of our elected and appointed officials.”
Similarly, Oklahoma State Sen. Nathan Dahm submitted a bill on Feb. 22 that would revoke the medical license of a physician who performs an elective abortion "with an intention other than to increase the probability of a live birth, to preserve the life or health of the child after live birth, to remove an ectopic pregnancy, or to remove a dead unborn child who died as the result of a spontaneous miscarriage, accidental trauma, or a criminal assault on the pregnant female or her unborn child." Both Dahm's and Silk's bills are scheduled for a hearing in the State Senate on March 7.
The bill's introduction in Oklahoma is only the most recent in a series of moves by many states seeking to restrict or outright ban abortions. Silk submitted the bill to criminalize abortion on March 2, the same day the Supreme Court began hearing its first abortion case in more than a decade regarding new rules in Texas that would impose strict new regulations on abortion clinics, including stipulations that clinics have admitting privileges to local hospitals and that each facility meet the same health and safety standards as ambulatory surgical centers.
If the regulations are upheld, more than have of the state’s 18 existing abortion clinics would be forced to close.
The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a similiar Louisiana law, which would have resulted in the closure of three of the state's four operating abortion clinics.