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OKLAHOMA CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - Lawmakers in Oklahoma have just approved a measure Thursday that would make performing an abortion or assisting in the practice a felony punishable by prison time.

The bill passed in the state senate 32–12 and now awaits pro-life Governor Mary Fallin's veto or signature. The bill's author Sen. Nathan Dahm explained his reasons for proposing the bill to the senate.

"Since I believe life begins at conception, it should be protected, and I believe it's a core function of state government to defend that life from the beginning of conception."

The bill, SB1552, mandates that any physician who participates in an abortion — deemed "unprofessional conduct" in the bill — will be "prohibited from obtaining or renewing a license to practice medicine in this state."

Abortion supporters are dismayed by the new measure. Sherri Baker, head of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, expressed disappointment in the new law, saying that its only purpose is to "intimidate physicians" across the state.

"We are extremely disappointed in today's vote," Baker said in a statement Thursday. "It is simply unconscionable that, at a time when our state already faces a severe physician shortage, the senate would waste its time on a bill that is patently unconstitutional and whose only purposes are to score political points and intimidate physicians across this state."

Amanda Allen, senior state legislative counsel at the Center For Reproductive Rights, sent a letter to the governor claiming that the bill "is blatantly unconstitutional and, if it takes effect, it will be the most extreme abortion law in this country."

Pro-life advocates in the United States hope this bill will help to lead toward the eventual overturn of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the country. The current make-up of the High Court, after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, is evenly split 4–4 ideologically, particularly with regard to the issue of abortion.

If Gov. Fallin signs the bill into law, SB1552 will go into effect November 1.

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