Oklahoma’s Abortion Ban Endangers Women’s Lives — And Their Future

WASHINGTON, DC–Oklahoma’s Republican Governor, Kevin Stitt fulfilled his promise to sign every abortion ban that reached his desk—and today, the abortion ban he signed clearly violates women’s constitutional rights.  

When Texas passed the notorious six-week abortion ban, 45 percent of patients in the state were forced to travel to Oklahoma for abortion care, according to a study from the University of Texas at Austin.  If the Oklahoma ban goes into effect this summer, women will be forced to travel even farther, to Arkansas, Kansas, or New Mexico, where clinics are booked beyond capacity and wait times can be two to four weeks for appointments. 

Some women will be able to afford to take time out from work and have the means to travel, but many don’t—particularly women already experiencing economic insecurities and affected by poverty rooted in systemic racism such as those from BIPOC and disenfranchised communities. For them, days away from work could mean not making the rent, or losing their jobs altogether.  The lawmakers who passed this law may have no lived experience dealing with the constant pressure of economic anxiety, job insecurity and the constant struggle to keep their families above water—but that’s a daily way of life for millions of women.   

NOW members know that attacks on abortion care are attacks on not only reproductive justice, but racial justice, economic justice, and whole health.  We are sick and tired of lawmakers playing politics with women’s lives, and endangering their future to score points, win more campaign donations, or get headlines. 

NOW will work to overturn these bans and stand up for women’s lives.  And in November, we will vote for women’s lives—in Oklahoma, Texas, and everywhere else. 

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The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the nation’s leading membership-based advocacy group dedicated to defending women’s rights, advancing equality and combating injustice in all aspects of social, political and economic life. Through educating, mobilizing, and convening a vast network of grassroots activists across the country, NOW advocates for national, state and local policies that promote an anti-racist and intersectional feminist agenda. Since its founding in 1966, NOW has been on the frontlines of nearly every major advancement for women’s rights and continues to champion progressive values today. More about NOW’s efforts and resources is available at NOW.org. 

 

Contact: Press Team, press@now.org,