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Idaho Enacts Texas-Style Near-Total Abortion Ban; Oklahoma House Approves Total Abortion Ban

HeadlineMar 24, 2022

Idaho has become the first state to enact a law modeled on Texas’s near-total ban on abortions. Republican Governor Brad Little signed the bill Wednesday, which bans abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy and allows anyone biologically related to the fetus to sue abortion providers if they defy the law. The only exceptions are in cases of medical emergency, rape or incest, but the latter two require the patient to have reported a crime to police. Also on Wednesday, Oklahoma’s House of Representatives passed a total abortion ban that would be enforced by “bounty hunter”-style lawsuits. These latest attacks on reproductive rights come nearly seven months after Texas enacted its near-total ban on abortions. Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent for The Nation magazine, says nearly half of all patients who left Texas and traveled out of state for their abortion have gone to Oklahoma.

Amy Littlefield: “Now the Oklahoma House has passed a total ban on abortion. It bans abortion at fertilization, before a pregnancy even implants in the uterus. And if it’s passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, it would take effect immediately. One really noteworthy thing about this law, it defines ‘woman’ as any person whose biological sex is female based on their chromosomes and having a uterus, regardless of gender identity. So, again, we really see the intersection of the anti-abortion and anti-trans agenda rolled into this bill that would decimate abortion access in the region.”

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