Controversial Anti-Abortion Bill Could Revoke A Doctor's License If Passed

A controversial bill could ban doctors from performing abortions even if the patient is a victim of rape.

Under Senate Bill 1552, a doctor's medical license could be revoked if they performed an abortion on any woman whose life is not threatened by the pregnancy.

"Once there is a life there, that life is innocent, and that is a human life,” supporter Paul Blair said.

Regardless of how it got there.

Joleen Chaney: "Rape?"

Blair: "Rape or incest obviously we would want to punish every criminal to the fullest extent of the law…and there are countless testimonies if you look online including celebrities that are very successful people that have contributed to society in many marvelous ways that were the product of rape and incest."

Joleen Chaney: "So you don't believe rape is an exception?"

Blair: "I don't believe there is a cause just justly take an innocent life. So the rapist or the murderer should be dealt with with the most severest extent of the law, but that innocent child that's now within the mother should not be killed."

But that's what some are trying to get signed into law with Senate Bill 1552. State Sen. Nathan Dahm is one of the bill's authors.

"The intent of the bill is to add to the list of existing reasons for which a doctor could lose their license,” Dahm said. "To save the life of the mother would not include rape. There already are some provisions in Oklahoma statutes for criminal assaults but not in this one specifically."

"It's an unconstitutional piece of legislation at a time health indicators for Oklahoma's women are at an all-time low … when rural hospitals are threatened with closure, and our state is facing one of its largest budget crisis in its history. To do this on top of all that,” ACLU President Ryan Kiesel said. “It's asinine. It's insane."

ACLU leaders said the bill will be challenged by them or another organization and is a waste of time and money.

"All these bills are  just politics. It's something that somebody could put in a direct mail piece or in some other campaign literature in hopes of trying to get re-elected, but what they're doing is playing politics with the health care of Oklahoma's women, and that's unacceptable,” Keisel said.

Click here to learn more about the bill.