Senator Murray Statement on Oklahoma’s Abortion Ban

Senator Murray: “This isn’t going away—Republicans did not stop in Texas or in Idaho, and they won’t stop in Oklahoma either. This is a fight for our generation. This is a fight for our times. And I will do everything I can to protect the right to abortion.”

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement on the Governor of Oklahoma signing an abortion ban into law, making it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. At the bill signing ceremony, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt commented that, “We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma.” Unless a court intervenes, the law will go into effect in August.

“When Texas passed their cruel abortion ban, thousands of  Texas patients went across state lines—including to Oklahoma—to get constitutionally-protected abortion care. But now, Oklahoma has passed their own abortion ban, and it will force Oklahoma patients to go across state lines too just to get the care they need.

“As Republicans continue to advance their extreme agenda, women will be forced to go further, travel more miles, spend more of their savings, take more days off, and find more child care just to get an abortion. Or if they don’t have the means—which so many women of color and women with low incomes don’t—they will be forced to stay pregnant when they don’t want to be. This is cruel. These bans are a threat to our fundamental rights and they will continue to create health crises, with impacts far beyond the states where they are enacted.

“This isn’t going away—Republicans did not stop in Texas or in Idaho, and they won’t stop in Oklahoma either. This is a fight for our generation. This is a fight for our times. And I will do everything I can to protect the right to abortion.”

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