Oklahoma governor signs Texas-style ban on most abortions

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a Texas-style abortion ban that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy

By SEAN MURPHY Related Press

3 Might 2022, 23:03

• 4 min read

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a Texas-style abortion ban on Tuesday that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant, part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court docket will uphold new restrictions.

“I need Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state within the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

Stitt's signing of the invoice comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's excessive court docket that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect instantly together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the new legislation is in effect, they'll immediately cease providing providers for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the regulation is in impact, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a staff attorney for the New York-based Heart for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket will still grant us aid."

The new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise can be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, earlier than many women know they're pregnant. The same invoice accredited in Texas final yr led to a dramatic reduction within the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, mentioned Texas' law that took effect in September has given their workers an concept of what a post-Roe country might seem like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've commonly treated patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time off of labor, taking day out of college and taking time away from their household responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they had been able to get safely and readily of their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the results of a medical emergency, however there are not any exceptions if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest.

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit personal citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to stay in place, other Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is just not set to take impact till this summer, and authorized consultants say it's more likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade decision nonetheless remains the legislation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, according to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma had been ladies from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 women from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma each month, the info shows. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.