Oklahoma just added more protections for families who are harmed by abortion.
Last week, pro-life Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a law to expand the legal rights of women and the families of women who have been misled into aborting their unborn babies.
The wrongful death law allows women and families to sue abortionists who fail to inform women of the risks of abortion, fail to check them for coercion or fail to follow the state informed consent requirements. Women who suffer physical or psychological harm also could sue. It goes into effect in November.
State Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, who wrote the law, said women frequently feel coerced into aborting their unborn babies, and the new law will provide more protections for them, Oklahoma News 9 reports.
“So what that means is if they’re lying to the woman, they’re not checking to see if they’re being coerced and performing the abortion anyway, if they’re not warning them about the psychological or physical side effect of it, those kind of things are what we’re screening for,” Bullard said.
Fathers and grandparents of the unborn baby also could sue, according to the pro-abortion site Mic.
Bullard said he wants to make Oklahoma an “abortion desert” that protects unborn babies.
“Once these fraudulent schemes are exposed and no longer available, thousands of unborn babies will be saved every year,” he said.
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Pro-abortion groups slammed the law, and Planned Parenthood is considering a lawsuit, the local news reports.
“Oklahoma law already allows for a wrongful death remedy. This type of civil remedy to be brought against an abortion provider in the act of negligence. So, this law now expands it to coercion,” Tamya Cox-Toure of Planned Parenthood Great Plains told the local news. “Coercion is not something that is happening in abortion care. Doctors and providers are required to go through a whole list of questioning.”
But coercion does happen, and studies and personal stories provide evidence of it. Last fall, for example, a woman told a CBS News affiliate how she had begged an Indiana abortionist to stop her abortion, but he refused.
One study found 64 percent of women who had abortions said they were coerced by a partner or parent. Victims of sex trafficking also report that their abusers frequently force them to have abortions. And Human Coalition reported that almost 36 percent of its clients said someone — typically a partner or a parent — was pressuring them to abort.
Bullard quoted some of these numbers, but Planned Parenthood dismissed them as “anti-choice propaganda,” according to the news reports.
Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities exist to sell abortions. In 2013, Planned Parenthood even gave an award to one of its clinics for “exceeding abortion visits.” The abortion industry fights against informed consent laws that inform women about their unborn babies, abortion risks and alternatives. They also try to stop abortion clinic regulations that help ensure the environment is at least safe for the mother.
Bullard’s law will help ensure that mothers and their families have a greater chance of justice when they have been wronged by the abortion industry. Though the lawsuits will never fully make up for the injustice of killing of an unborn baby, they at least can hold the abortion industry accountable for the harm it causes to so many parents and grandparents.
