Oklahoma lawmakers have passed a bill that would make abortion illegal in the state except in medical emergencies, punishing anyone who violates the legislation with fines of up to $US100,000 ($NZ144,000) and ten years in jail.

The Republican-controlled state House of Representatives took the bill to a vote this week after it was enacted last year by the Midwestern state's Senate. It now heads to Republican Governor Kevin Stitt's desk for signature.

Stitt has indicated a willingness to support anti-abortion legislation. It will take effect this summer if he signs the bill unless other courts block it.

Oklahoma's abortion ban will expand a section of the country with little to no legal abortion access. Since Texas prohibited abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy in September, the state has become a destination for Texas women seeking abortions.

"These harmful bills are an alarming reminder that the days of access to safe and legal abortion may be numbered, and we must continue to fight to guarantee all people have access to the essential health care they need, including abortion," Tamya Cox-Toure, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, said in a statement.

The Oklahoma House legislation is one of several anti-abortion bills currently through the state legislature.

This year, separate legislation seeks to prohibit practically all abortions and empower private citizens to sue anybody who "aids or abets" abortions, similar to Texas's six-week abortion ban.

That measure has an emergency clause, allowing it to take effect immediately upon passage and signature by the governor.

According to the measure enacted Tuesday, "a person shall not purposely perform or attempt to perform an abortion except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency."

In recent years, Republican-led states such as Oklahoma have implemented a series of abortion-related restrictions.

The US Supreme Court is scheduled to rule by June on a case involving a Republican-backed Mississippi legislation that allows the court's conservative majority to damage or perhaps invalidate the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationally.