Oklahoma governor vetoes bill that makes it a felony to perform abortions

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday vetoed a controversial bill that would have made it a felony for doctors to perform abortions, saying she felt the bill was too vague and poorly constructed.

Fallin’s decision came a day after lawmakers in the state approved the unprecedented legislation.

“The bill is so ambiguous and so vague that doctors cannot be certain what medical circumstances would be considered ‘necessary to preserve the life of the mother,’” Fallin, a Republican, said in a statement announcing her decision.

According to the measure, known as SB1552, a person who performed or induced an abortion would have been guilty of a felony and punished with between one and three years in the state penitentiary.

In a message to lawmakers, Fallin said that while she has “signed no less than 18 bills supporting pro-life and pro-family values,” she was critical of the bill’s provision making it a felony to perform an abortion. Fallin said she supports a reexamination of the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, but felt this was not the right bill to achieve that task.

“In fact, the most direct path to a re-examination of the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade is the appointment of a conservative, pro-life justice to the United States Supreme Court,” Fallin said in a statement.

This legislation also stated that any physician who participates in an abortion – deemed “unprofessional conduct” in the bill – will be “prohibited from obtaining or renewing a license to practice medicine in this state.” Medical licenses would not have been stripped from doctors who performed abortions deemed necessary to save the mother’s life.

Fallin had until Wednesday to decide whether to sign the bill, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature. She had not commented publicly on the bill before and had not given an indication of how she would sign it.

The Oklahoma bill is the first such measure of its kind, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which says that other states seeking to ban abortion have simply banned the procedure rather than attaching penalties like this.

State Sen. Nathan Dahm, a Republican who represents Tulsa County, had told the Associated Press he hoped the measure would lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman’s right to an abortion.

Dahm did not respond to messages seeking comment Friday.

Before Fallin’s veto, Liberty Counsel, a group that rose to national prominence last year defending the Kentucky clerk who refused to sign same-sex marriage licenses, had said Friday that it had helped support the legislation in Oklahoma. The organization also vowed to defend it in court.

“This particular bill puts a target on Roe v. Wade,” Mat Staver, the group’s founder and chairman, said in an interview Friday. “It is Oklahoma’s line in the sand on the sanctity of human life, as standing on the side of protecting innocent children.”

Staver had said he expected Fallin to sign the legislation. He also said his group had met with Oklahoma lawmakers before the bill was filed, offering legal analysis after discussions had begun in the state about proposing such a measure.

The Oklahoma State Medical Association, which called the measure “troubling,” had urged Fallin to veto what it called “one more insulting slap in the face of our state’s medical providers.”

Abortion rights groups had similarly urged her to veto the bill and had called it unconstitutional and dangerous.

“This bill puts doctors in the cross hairs for providing women with the option of exercising our fundamental right to decide how and when to start a family,”Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement Thursday. “And it creates penalties for doctors doing their jobs: performing a safe and legal medical procedure.”