OKLAHOMA CITY — In response to Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signing HB 4327, a total abortion ban that would eliminate access to care for more than one million people across the state and many more in the surrounding region, carried by Representative Wendi Stearman and Senator Julie Daniels, the ACLU of Oklahoma issued the following response:
The following is attributable to Tamya Cox-Touré, Executive Director:
“No one should be forced to carry a pregnancy against their will and face the life-altering consequences of being denied this essential health care. Over the last several months, Oklahoma politicians have gone to extremes during an election year, playing partisan politics by taking away our community's control over if and when to have a child. We have already seen the devastation of banning abortion play out in Texas where many people have been forced to flee their state in search of reproductive health care or denied the care they need entirely. This nightmare has now become a reality in Oklahoma.”
“Banning abortion does not eliminate the need for this kind of care - rather it forces people to seek abortion outside of the health care system. Attacks on abortion access have and will continue to fall on the most marginalized people: people of color and people struggling to make ends meet. And we have already seen that the politicians passing abortion bans will not stop at pushing care out of reach, as daily attacks on our 2SLGBTQ+ community and attempts to control what we learn in the classroom have become the norm.”
“This election season, we need everyone to VOTE like your rights depend on it - because they do. If abortion is going to be left to the political process, those of us who care about body autonomy and reproductive freedom must get engaged. We have the power to fight back, and the ACLU of Oklahoma is committed to using the full force of our organization to do just that. We will continue to fight in the courts, in statehouses, and in the streets, not just today, but for the foreseeable future. This is not over.”
