Oklahoma governor indicators 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 being pregnant

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

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

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

The bill Stitt signed takes effect immediately with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new regulation is in effect, they will instantly cease providing companies for ladies after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the regulation is in effect, which it now's as a result of the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks will likely be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a staff lawyer for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers 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 brand new law prohibits abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, before many ladies know they're pregnant. The same invoice authorised in Texas final year led to a dramatic reduction in the variety of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, stated Texas' law that took effect in September has given their workers an concept of what a post-Roe country would possibly seem like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have commonly handled patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time off of work, taking trip of faculty and taking time away from their household duties to get the care that till September 2021 they have been able to get safely and readily of their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the results of a medical emergency, but there aren't any exceptions if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit personal citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a girl acquire an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket 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, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure is just not set to take effect until this summer, and authorized consultants say it's prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade determination still remains the legislation of the land.

The number of abortions performed each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last twenty years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in response to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, before the Texas law was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma had been girls from Texas.

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