Oklahoma bill would make distributing abortion pills a felony

The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would make distributing abortion pills a felony punishable by up to $100,000 or 10 years in prison or both.

House Bill 3013 does not restrict Plan B or the Morning After Pill and clarifies it does not prohibit the use or sale of contraceptives, including birth control pills.

If signed into law, anyone who distributes or possesses with the intent to distribute abortion-inducing drugs would be guilty of a felony. The penalty would be equal to the penalty under existing law for performing an illegal abortion.

“These pills are dangerous, even taken under the best of circumstances,” said Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader, R-Piedmont. “My concern, what this bill addresses, is trafficking of those pills. What I see is a bad player is going to try to profit off of a woman on her worst day, when she is at her most vulnerable. And so this bill is to simply make it illegal to traffic them.”

Rep. Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, said she worried restricting access to abortion drugs would put women in a dangerous position.

“My concern is because there have been such extreme bans and restrictions to abortion care that we’re actually creating more problems by potentially creating a black market or women or folks hiding, trying to access medication for abortion medication,” Munson said.

Crosswhite Hader said her goal is to protect women, adding there are some reports of women being given abortion-inducing drugs by non-medical professionals and then taking them in isolation with no medical help on hand.

“That’s where they become the most dangerous because then someone is not getting any kind of medical coaching on how to use these because they are a dangerous drug. The idea is to expel an abortion, which is, in effect, a miscarriage. So if they have an ectopic pregnancy, if they have a history of blood clots, other medical issues, it can kill them. Already women are four times more likely to have to go to the hospital using chemical abortion pills. So think about what it is if you’re not getting any kind of correct medical information on this pill,” said Crosswhite Hader.

Rep. Forrest Bennett, D-Oklahoma City, who debated against the bill, said he believes the legislation would make Oklahoma a “hostile and unsafe environment for women.”

“My hope was after we passed the strictest abortion ban in the country that we would move on to other things, especially those things that would strengthen families in Oklahoma, but we didn’t,” said Bennett.

The bill moves to the Senate for consideration. If passed into law, the it would go into effect Nov. 1.