2020 Victories: ACLJ Helps Oklahoma Legislature Pass Historic Bill Allowing Families To Sue Abortionists Who Commit Fraudulent Abortions

This is the latest installment of our year-end victories series looking back at some of the numerous victories by the ACLJ in 2020.

This year in a major step forward in the fight for life, Oklahoma passed one of the most aggressive pro-life bills in history – a bill the ACLJ was directly involved in – to hold abortionists accountable for taking the lives of innocent unborn babies.

The Oklahoma Unborn Person Wrongful Death Act allows parents and grandparents to file lawsuits against abortionists who perform fraudulent or coerced abortions and seek damages for mental pain and anguish.

A study by a pro-life advocacy group reported as many as 69% of U.S. abortions are performed without full legal consent. And emotional mothers are sometimes illegally coerced into abortions. Under the act, a mother or her family would have grounds to sue the abortionist.

OK House Majority Floor Leader Rep. Jon Echols, who helped draft and advance the bill, had this to say: 

“Without the support of the ACLJ, this bill would not have become law. Their team worked diligently with both myself and other legislators to make sure we were able to pass this law to protect Oklahoma’s unborn.”

Oklahoma Senator David Bullard, the bill’s primary author, said this: 

“In the process of writing bills it is necessary to bring wise counsel to the process.  In the case of saving lives from abortion as in SB1728, the ACLJ saved untold unborn people.  The ACLJ were and are on the front lines of justice for those who need it most.”

The ACLJ has been aggressively engaged with state legislatures across the country to protect the lives of unborn babies, including this latest pro-life bill in Oklahoma.

This bold move is particularly encouraging at a time when some pro-abortion states are considering hideous new abortion legislation, including adding a right to abortion in state constitutions, taking away medical regulations on abortion, and allowing babies who survive botched abortions to die on the operating table.

Shining light on these ghoulish bills is the most effective way to fight them and the craven abortion supporters who sponsor them. When our attorneys arrived at the Maryland Capitol to give oral testimony, having already submitted written testimony, against a bill that would have added the right to abortion to the state constitution, the bill’s sponsor withdrew the bill before the hearing even started.

Even during this pandemic, our work does not stop. Countless defenseless babies’ lives depend on us.

To help the ACLJ continue to have the resources we need to defend pro-life laws in courtrooms across the nation – including at the Supreme Court – please consider making a Tax-Deductible donation to the ACLJ through our year-end Matching Challenge. Your gift will be DOUBLED dollar-for-dollar through the end of the year.

You can read more in the ACLJ’s 2020 Victories Series here.

Chip in today and double your impact.