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 learn

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 would like Oklahoma to be essentially 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 court docket that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

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 invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the new law is in impact, they may instantly cease offering providers for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the legislation is in effect, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks can be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a employees legal professional for the New York-based Center 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 Courtroom will still grant us relief."

The brand new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise will be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they are pregnant. An identical invoice permitted in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic discount within the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Nice Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their employees an idea of what a post-Roe nation would possibly seem like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have usually treated sufferers who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking day off of work, taking day out of school and taking time away from their household tasks to get the care that till September 2021 they were in a position to get safely and readily in their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if performed as the results of a medical emergency, but there aren't any exceptions if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman receive an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket allowed that mechanism to remain in place, other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure will not be set to take impact until this summer time, and authorized experts say it's prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade decision still stays the law of the land.

The number of abortions performed each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past twenty years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in line with knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas regulation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma were girls from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma each month, the data exhibits. That number jumped to 222 Texas ladies in September and 243 in October.