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

“I would like Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state within the nation," 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 excessive court docket that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

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

“While the law is in impact, which it now could be because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks can be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a staff lawyer for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will nonetheless grant us reduction."

The brand new legislation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise might be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, earlier than many ladies know they're pregnant. An analogous bill accredited in Texas last yr led to a dramatic reduction within the number of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.

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

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've frequently handled sufferers who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time without work of labor, taking time out of school and taking time away from their household obligations to get the care that until September 2021 they were in a position to get safely and readily of their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if carried out as the results of a medical emergency, however there are no exceptions if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit personal residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket allowed that mechanism to stay in place, other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been temporarily 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 shouldn't be set to take effect until this summer season, and authorized consultants say it is prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination nonetheless remains the regulation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last twenty years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in line with information from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma had been women from Texas.

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