Reproductive Health Access Would Be Limited Under New Law

HB 3013 would criminalize people who are not medical professionals for providing abortion medication.

March 15, 2024‍

New legislation that would make it a felony for anyone who is not a medical professional to give or possess abortion-inducing drugs with the intent to cause an abortion for another person has passed a vote in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

HB 3013 advanced from the House floor on March 14 after questions and debate between the author, Representative Denise Crosswhite Hader (R-Piedmont) and several Democratic members. “My goal is to protect the physical and mental health of women,” Crosswhite Hader said. “This bill addresses people that are trafficking abortion-inducing drugs to young women with little to no thought to the consequences, all to make a profit from a woman during one of the most vulnerable times of her life.”

Democrats who debated against the bill argued that abortion medication and abortion care are already restricted in Oklahoma after the statewide abortion ban. “To those who have made the decision to get an abortion or are thinking about it, I am so sorry that we continue to attack the very right you have to access the healthcare you need,” Minority Leader Cyndi Munson (D-Oklahoma City) said. “My constituents are asking me if we are still working on anti-abortion legislation, and these are not left-wing, liberal Democrats I’m talking to. These are Republican women saying, ‘stop it,’ to this continued attack on women’s reproductive rights and healthcare because this body passes legislation so extreme and dangerous women cannot access the care they need.”

According to Munson, 20 percent of women in Oklahoma ages nineteen to forty-four do not have access to health insurance and sometimes seek treatment outside the professional healthcare system. “When you criminalize and attack reproductive healthcare, you criminalize and attack healthcare in general,” she said.

The bill does not restrict emergency contraception like Plan B or morning-after pills, provided they are prescribed and purchased through medical professionals, Crosswhite Hader said, adding that nothing in the legislation would prohibit the use, sale, prescription, or administration of preventative contraception such as birth control pills and devices.

Answering a question from another member, Crosswhite Hader said she had heard reports of women buying emergency contraception illicitly online, and that, when taken without proper medical supervision, the drugs can leave women to suffer alone through cramping and bleeding with no medical expert to help them through the physical and emotional pain of ending their pregnancies.

The bill was motivated by the religious beliefs of legislative members who concern themselves with what women should and should not be able to do, said Representative Forrest Bennett (D-Oklahoma City). “While I certainly respect everyone’s faith and their desire to adhere to it, I don’t think it’s right to create laws dictating how others should live with that motivation,” Bennett said. “I also reject the idea that this was done in the name of women’s safety. I understand the need to use medicines as prescribed, and we appear to trust Oklahomans enough to self-regulate when it comes to ibuprofen and vitamin D, for example—things that help when taken correctly but harmful in the wrong dosage, so it seems inconsistent to single out one medication in the name of the health of the person consuming it.”

Reproductive health advocates have said that HB 3013 could be construed as defining personhood to be "from conception," depending on how the bill language is interpreted, and that some of the medications in question can be used in other medical procedures, which could affect other reproductive healthcare, such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

Under the language of the bill, a person convicted of trafficking or attempting to traffic abortion-inducing drugs shall be guilty on a felony punishable by a fine not to exceed $100,000 and up to ten years in prison, the same penalty as current law for performing an illegal abortion.

HB 3013 passed the House, 77-18, along party lines. It is now eligible to be heard in the Senate. If signed by the governor, the bill would become law on November 1.  

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