Senator Murray Statement on Oklahoma’s Extreme, First-in-the-Nation Complete Ban on Abortion

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued the following statement on Oklahoma’s complete ban on abortion, which was signed into law by Governor Kevin Stitt Wednesday and takes effect immediately. The law is the strictest abortion ban in the nation and is enforced by the Texas-style legal mechanism that allows neighbors to sue those who help provide abortion care for cash prizes.

“Oklahoma is now the first state to enact a complete ban on abortion—from the moment of fertilization—a downright cruel policy that will force every woman in the state, including those who might not even know they are pregnant, to carry their pregnancy to term. This is the bleak future Republicans want for women and families across America.

“I’ll say it a thousand times more: Republicans will not stop at overturning Roe. They are prepared to go to the end of the Earth to rip away every woman’s right to make her own decisions about if and when to start a family. Republicans in states across the country are banning abortion without exceptions, they’re coming for patients’ birth control and access to essential services like IVF, and they’re even eyeing a nationwide abortion ban.

“We’re going to keep fighting back, using every tool at our disposal to protect women’s fundamental rights as Republicans roll back the clock—because the painful reality is that Republicans want to implement laws like this one in every state across the country.”

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