Oklahoma Legislators Discuss Abortion

After having a few days to look over the Oklahoma Supreme Court abortion ruling, leadership at the Capitol are working to figure out what's next. The Governor is now urging lawmakers to move forward with legislation that may clear up the state’s abortion laws.

Supreme Court Justices ruled that there is a limited right to abortion, if the mother’s life is at risk. In the ruling, Justices say the Oklahoma constitution gives women "an inherent right of a pregnant woman to terminate a pregnancy when necessary to save her life."

Many republican lawmakers expressed their concerns with the ruling, and Friday we heard about what may be next for the state’s abortion laws.

“The good news is elective abortions are still not allowed in Oklahoma and unborn life is protected and the life of the mother,” said Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat. “The part that I'm not happy about is leaving the door wide open, potentially the elective abortion side.”

The governor, in his weekly press conference, called the decision confusing.

“In legislation we already protect the life of the mother,” said Governor Stitt. “It looked like they were trying to legislate from the bench.”

“Pretty offensive language in a lot of ways about the intent of the legislature,” said Treat.

Treat says they’re talking about possible legislation and clear-up language to ensure the laws in place are protecting unborn children and mothers. Stitt agreed that there may need to be some clarification on what the laws allow.

“If there's a problem with the clarity in the way they wrote the laws. Let's make sure that's very very clear, we always want to protect the life of the mother,” said Stitt.

Senate legislation that would have added an exception for an abortion for victims of rape and incest stalled in the Senate after it wasn’t heard on the floor.

Thursday was the deadline for bills to be heard on the floor in the place of origin, and Senator Julie Daniels' bill, SB834, was stalled.

“In conversations across the rotunda and downstairs I didn't know if that was going to get all the way through and I didn't want to have a vote on something that may not have success,” said Treat.

He said he supports Sen. Daniels’ idea, calling her a champion for the pro-life issue. He says even though it didn’t pass this hurdle to move forward to the House committee, it may not be the end for the bill.

“That doesn't mean it can't, if we come to an agreement with our counterparts to have a Speaker Pro Tem bill, or some other vehicle to move that idea forward,” said Treat.

Next week committee work starts again, and bills will be heard in the opposite chamber of where they were written.