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 being pregnant

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 being pregnant, 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 excessive courtroom that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact immediately along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to temporarily halt the invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the new legislation is in impact, they may immediately stop offering companies for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the regulation is in impact, which it now is as a result of the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks might be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a workers attorney for the New York-based Center 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 relief."

The brand new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise can be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they're pregnant. The same bill approved in Texas final yr led to a dramatic discount within the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

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

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've frequently treated sufferers who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking time without work of work, taking day trip of school and taking time away from their family tasks to get the care that until September 2021 they have been able to get safely and readily in their communities."

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

Like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma bill would allow personal residents to sue abortion suppliers 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 remain 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 Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure isn't set to take effect until this summer season, and authorized specialists say it's likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade decision nonetheless stays the law of the land.

The variety of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in line with knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, before the Texas regulation was passed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma have been girls from Texas.

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