Oklahoma Republicans have introduced a bill in the legislature to create a government-run database that tracks pregnant women considering abortions.
Oklahoma Senator George Burns has filed a bill that would track every woman who has an abortion.
Under the “Every Mother Matters Act,” or EMMA women will have to register with pre-abortion service, which will attempt to dissuade them from having an abortion. It will complete “an assessment of eligibility” and advise them on things like housing, child care, and job searches.
It appears that the women cannot use the “pre-abortion resource” anonymously, but on the hotline will have to provide their data and be given a “unique identifying case number” which will go on their medical files for seven years, creating a database of women who receive legal abortion care.
Following the controversial Texas Heartbeat Act, more than 25 states have started filing bills that would limit abortion access. The recent EMMA bill is one in a series of anti-abortion bills in Oklahoma. Since the Texas Heartbeat Act was passed into law, many women have resorted to driving hours and crossing state lines into Oklahoma to seek abortions.
Oklahoma State Representative Sean Roberts announced his plans last month to introduce a bill that mirrors Texas’s anti-abortion laws. His bill will allow any individual in Oklahoma to sue doctors who perform an abortion that is not carried out solely to save the woman’s life. Much like Texas’s law, individuals $10,000 will be able toque individuals who “aids and abets” those seeking abortions.
The Republican Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, has also said he will sign any anti-abortion bill the legislature sends him.
The future of Roe v. wade, the 1973 ruling that protected a woman’s right to have an abortion up to 23 to 24 weeks until the fetus could survive outside the body, is being debated in the Supreme Court. Former President Donald Trump appointed three new Republican court justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, who are likely to vote to reverse Roe.
