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Oklahoma Governor Signs Bill to Make Abortion Illegal

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill into law on Tuesday that makes it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, as part of an aggressive push in Republican-led states across the country to scale back abortion rights. 

The bill, which takes effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns next month, makes an exception only for an abortion performed to save the life of the mother. Abortion rights advocates say the bill signed by the GOP governor is certain to face a legal challenge. 

Its passage comes as the conservative U.S. Supreme Court considers ratcheting back abortion rights that have been in place for nearly 50 years. 

“We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma,” Stitt said during a signing ceremony for the bill, flanked by anti-abortion lawmakers, clergy and students. “I promised Oklahomans that I would sign every pro-life bill that hits my desk, and that’s what we’re doing here today.” 

Under the bill, anyone convicted of performing an abortion would face up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. It does not authorize criminal charges against a woman for receiving an abortion. 

Sen. Nathan Dahm, a Broken Arrow Republican now running for Congress who wrote the bill, called it the “strongest pro-life legislation in the country right now, which effectively eliminates abortion in Oklahoma.” 

Abortion rights advocates say the bill is clearly unconstitutional, and similar laws approved recently in Arkansas and Alabama have been blocked by federal courts. 

“Oklahoma legislators are trying to ban abortion from all sides and merely seeing which of these dangerous, shameful bills they can get their governor to sign,” Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Texas and Oklahoma and a board member at Physicians for Reproductive Health, said in a statement. Although similar anti-abortion bills approved by the Oklahoma Legislature in recent years have been stopped as unconstitutional, anti-abortion lawmakers have been buoyed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow new Texas abortion restrictions to remain in place. 

The new Texas law, the most restrictive anti-abortion law to take effect in the U.S. in decades, leaves enforcement up to private citizens, who are entitled to collect what critics call a “bounty” of $10,000 if they bring a successful lawsuit against a provider or anyone who helps a patient obtain an abortion. 

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s failure to stop Texas from nullifying the constitutional right to abortion has emboldened other states to do the same,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “We’ve sued the state of Oklahoma ten times in the last decade to protect abortion access and we will challenge this law as well to stop this travesty from ever taking effect.” 

Several states, including Oklahoma, are pursuing legislation similar to the Texas law this year. 

The Texas law bans abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy and makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Abortions in Texas have plummeted by about 50% since the law took effect, while the number of Texans going to clinics out of state and requesting abortion pills online has gone up. 

One of the Texas-style Oklahoma bills that is one vote away from the governor’s desk would ban abortions from the moment of conception and would take effect immediately upon the governor’s signature. 
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US State Department Orders Non-Emergency Personnel to Leave Shanghai 

Mandatory evacuation comes as authorities in Chinese financial hub gradually eases strict lockdown orders in some neighborhoods  
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Biden Announces Ghost Gun Rules, Nominates New ATF Head

U.S. President Joe Biden announced his administration’s efforts to regulate so-called ghost guns on Monday, including banning the manufacturing of kits that consumers can assemble themselves to make a gun that lacks a serial number, making it untraceable. Gun rights groups pledged to fight the rule. 

“Law enforcement is sounding the alarm,” Biden said at a White House event as he held a ghost gun. “Our communities are paying the price.”

“A year ago this week, standing here with many of you, I instructed the attorney general to write a regulation that would rein in the proliferation of ghost guns, because I was having trouble getting anything passed in the Congress,” Biden said. 

The new Justice Department rule will require that the kits feature serial numbers that law enforcement can use to track weapons used in crimes, that sellers be federally licensed and that background checks be conducted on buyers.  

Any store that obtains an existing ghost gun must also give it a serial number.  

Another part of the new rule addresses guns made with split receivers to ensure they are covered by regulations requiring serial numbers and background checks. The receiver is the part of a gun to which other parts, such as the barrel and trigger, attach.  

Another section requires gun sellers that were previously allowed to destroy most records after 20 years to now retain the information until they close their businesses. A shop that closes down will then transfer the records to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, known as the ATF.  

The Justice Department says that in 2021, law enforcement agencies reported 20,000 suspected ghost guns recovered during criminal investigations, 10 times as many as in 2016.  

Gun Owners of America, a gun rights advocacy group, vowed it would immediately fight the rule. 

“Just as we opposed the Trump Administration’s arbitrary ban on bump stocks, GOA will also sue Biden’s ATF to halt the implementation of this rule,” Aidan Johnston, the group’s director of federal affairs, said in a statement. The group believes the rule violates the U.S. Constitution and several federal laws. 

But the gun safety group Everytown called the new rules necessary. 

“Ghost guns look like a gun. They shoot like a gun, and they kill like a gun. But up until now, they haven’t been regulated like a gun,” said John Feinblatt, the organization’s president of gun safety.  

During the event, Biden also formally announced his choice of Steve Dettelbach as ATF director, a post that requires Senate confirmation. 

Biden’s first choice for the position, gun control advocate David Chipman, withdrew from consideration in the face of both Democratic and Republican opposition.  

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press. 

 
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Biden to Nominate New ATF Head, Announce Ghost Gun Rules

Steps meant to address use of guns lacking serial numbers
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Will U.S. Adopt Permanent Daylight Saving Time?

When Daylight Saving Time starts in most U.S. states every spring, clocks are set ahead one hour to make daylight last later each day through fall. Now, the U.S. Congress wants to make the shift permanent. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks into the so-called Sunshine Protection Act.
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