OKLAHOMA CITY — A vote by Kansas residents that effectively allows abortion in that state left Oklahoma reproductive rights supporters hopeful.
Kansas voters voted 59% to 41% on Tuesday to defeat an amendment that said there was no constitutional right to an abortion in that state.
The vote came on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and left the issue of whether to allow abortions up to the states.
Oklahoma outlawed abortion in almost all circumstances this year after having placed numerous restrictions on the procedure year after year.
It would take 177,958 signatures on a petition to get a state question on a ballot in an effort to make a constitutional change that would legalize abortion in Oklahoma.
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“I think these conversations about doing a proactive constitutional amendment have been in the works for some time,” said Tamya Cox-Toure, ACLU Oklahoma executive director and co-chairwoman of Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice. “What Kansas is showing is there is a path to victory that maybe Oklahomans can emulate and follow.”
She said most progressive policies enacted in Oklahoma have been done through the initiative petition process, adding that the Oklahoma Legislature has tried to create obstacles to thwart the will of the people.
The initiative petition process led to the legalization of medical marijuana and the expansion of Medicaid.
Amber England, owner of Strategy 77, a political consulting and public affairs company, managed the campaign to get Medicaid expansion passed. She also worked on a failed ballot measure to increase taxes in part to provide pay raises for teachers.
“I think what happened in Kansas will create a lot of enthusiasm from voters to see what might be possible in Oklahoma,” England said.
She said it is extremely hard to get something on the ballot, but she remains cautiously optimistic that something can be done.
“I think Kansas is a wake-up call for everyone, including the people of Oklahoma, that voters are not as extreme as the policies that are being pushed by state lawmakers in Oklahoma City,” England said.
'The Kansas City Star' reports that the referendum failed 61% to 39%.
House Minority Leader Emily Virgin, D-Norman, said a lot of people across the country had been watching to see what voters in Kansas would do.
She said supporters of reproductive rights had argued that a ban was extreme and that doctors and patients should have the right to make decisions without the interference of government.
“It is a sign that even in conservative states, people think this has gone too far,” Virgin said.
Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, who has authored several abortion bills, said he doesn’t think Oklahoma voters would legalize abortion here.
“Oklahomans are overwhelmingly pro-life,” Treat said. “Given the sentiment mutually shared among our citizens, I personally believe that an initiative petition wouldn’t gather enough signatures to be on a ballot in the first place.
“However, I am confidant if a state question were to be on a ballot, our citizens would advocate for the unborn and vote against the measure.”
Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, has authored bills putting more restrictions on abortion.
She said the circumstances in Kansas are different from those in Oklahoma because the Kansas Supreme Court had handed down an opinion that said the right to an abortion is included in the state constitution.
In addition, it was unclear what actions the Kansas Legislature would take if the state question passed, she said.
“So a different set of circumstances and lack of clarity from the Legislature I think is what resulted in that (vote),” she said.
Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said that “Kansas chose not to put themselves in the same crisis that we have in neighboring states like Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, where abortion is now almost entirely inaccessible.”
Wales said her organization is committed to restoring abortion access across the four states it serves, including Oklahoma.
There are only five places in Kansas to access abortion, she said, adding that abortion in Kansas is still regulated.
Meanwhile, the organization’s clinics in Kansas are seeing an uptick in those seeking services from Oklahoma and Texas, she said.
Gallery: Abortion legislation in Oklahoma through the years
Gallery: Abortion legislation in Oklahoma through the years
Senate Bill 139: 2007
Public money and institutions are prohibited from being used to perform abortions in a measure that allowed abortions to save a mother's life, as well as in cases of rape or incest.
House Bill 2780: 2010-2012
The Oklahoma Supreme Court threw out a law requiring any woman seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound within an hour of the procedure and have its contents described to her, as well as another that put restrictions on the RU-486 abortion-inducing drug, and a ban on all medication abortions.
Senate Bill 1433: 2012
In 2012 the House Republican Caucus decided not to hear a measure that would have declared personhood at conception. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that an initiative petition to have personhood declared at conception was unconstitutional. It would have let voters decide on an initiative defining a fertilized egg as a "person," thereby banning abortion and most forms of contraception.
House Bill 2226: 2013-2014
Rose Day at the Capitol in Oklahoma City is a faith-based event in which people talk with legislators about anti-abortion legislation and other issues.
An Oklahoma County judge threw out a 2013 law that would have required women under 17 to have a prescription to obtain the "morning after" birth control pill.
Senate Bill 1848: 2014-2016
The state high court on Dec. 14, 2016, struck down a law that would have required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles.
Oklahoma's Senate Bill 1848, passed and signed in 2014, was ruled unconstitutional for creating an undue burden on a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. A similar Texas law had been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court only months earlier.
House Bill 2684: 2014
An Oklahoma County judge threw out a law that would have required doctors who treat women seeking a medication abortion to use a decade-old method considered less safe, less effective and more expensive. It required doctors to follow U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocols and barred off-label uses.
House Bill 1721: 2015
An Oklahoma County judge in October 2015 issued an injunction on a law that would have banned dilation and evacuation, a common second-semester abortion procedure.
The authors, Rep. Pam Peterson, R-Tulsa, and Sen. Josh Brecheen, R-Coalgate, called it the “Oklahoma Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act."
Senate Bill 1552: 2016
Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed a bill that would have made it a felony for physicians to perform abortions and revoke their medical licenses unless the abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother.
“The bill is so ambiguous and so vague that doctors cannot be certain what medical circumstances would be considered ‘necessary to preserve the life of the mother,’ ” Fallin said in a statement about the measure by Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow.
