Below is the press release for AUL’s model bill:
OKLAHOMA CITY – Legislation increasing legal protections for pregnant women and their unborn children received committee approval today.
Senate Bill 1103, by state Sen. Glenn Coffee and state Rep. Mike Thompson, would create the “Use of Force for the Protection of the Unborn Act.”
“Too often, pregnant women who refuse to abort a child are attacked by their partner in an effort to force a miscarriage,” said Thompson, R-Oklahoma City. “This legislation will make it crystal clear that those women can use lethal force to protect the life of their child in those cases.”
Under the bill, a pregnant woman is legally justified in using deadly force if she “reasonably believes” an attacker is “threatening her unborn child” and “use of force or deadly force are immediately necessary to protect her unborn child.”
According to the American Pregnancy Association, 240,000 pregnant women are subject to domestic violence each year and pregnant women face twice the risk of battery.
Senate Bill 1103 passed the House Judiciary Committee today. It now proceeds to the floor of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The bill previously passed the state Senate 44-0.
