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 Associated Press

3 May 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, a part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court will uphold new restrictions.

“I want Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state in the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

Stitt's signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's high courtroom that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect immediately along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the brand new legislation is in impact, they may immediately stop providing services for women after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the regulation is in effect, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a staff lawyer for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will still grant us reduction."

The brand new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity could be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks into a being pregnant, earlier than many women know they're pregnant. An analogous bill accredited in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic discount within the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their workers an concept of what a post-Roe nation would possibly appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have regularly treated sufferers who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time without work of labor, taking outing of college and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that until September 2021 they had been capable of get safely and readily in their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if performed 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 legislation, the Oklahoma bill would permit non-public residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a lady get hold of an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to stay in place, different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure isn't set to take effect till this summer season, and legal specialists say it is likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade choice nonetheless stays the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in line with information from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have 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 data exhibits. That number jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.