Oklahoma has become the 8th state to ban abortions following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The Sooner state has the distinction of becoming the first in the nation to successfully ban aboritons from conception when Governor Kevin Stitt signed its Texas-style abortion ban earlier this month. But, with the Supreme Court reversing Roe, the state’s trigger ban has gone into effect — which successfully bans abortions without having to rely on a private enforcement mechanism. This will allow state and local officials to uphold the abortion ban and punish abortionists who defy it and kill babies.
Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor sent a letter to several state leaders certifying that a “trigger law” that reinstates an abortion ban from 1910.
O’Connor said, “This is a huge day for Americans, and certainly those who believe life begins at conception.”
“The womb is now, in Oklahoma, the safest place for a child to be,” O’Connor said.
Meanwhile, Governor Stitt also celebrated the Supreme Court ruling.
“Today we are here to celebrate a lot of hard work,” Stitt said.
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“When I ran for governor, I promised Oklahomans that I would sign every piece of pro-life legislation that hit my desk, and I’m thrilled to have kept that promise,” Stitt said.
Texas and Oklahoma had banned abortions before Roe was overturned and Missouri became the first state after Roe to protect babies from abortions and South Dakota became the 2nd. Then Arkansas became the third state protecting babies from abortions and Kentucky became the 4th and Louisiana became the 5th and Ohio became the 6th and Utah became the 7th.
As LifeNews reported, the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, with a 5-4 majority ruling in the Dobbs case that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion” — allowing states to ban abortions and protect unborn babies. The high court also ruled 6-3 to uphold the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban so states can further limit abortions.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.
“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. “That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.’”
Immediately after the decision, Texas abortion businesses announced they were closing and South Carolina announced it had asked a federal appeals court to uphold its abortion ban.
Ultimately, as many as 26 states could immediately or quickly ban abortions and protect babies from certain death for the first time in nearly 50 years.
The 13 total states with trigger laws that would effectively ban all or most abortions are: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
“Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”
This is a landmark day for the Pro-Life movement and our entire nation. After staining the moral fabric of our country for nearly 50 years, Roe v. Wade is no more.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer authored a joint dissent condemning the decision as enabling states to enact “draconian” restrictions on women.
