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 Associated 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 Court will uphold new restrictions.

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

Stitt's signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's excessive courtroom that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 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 briefly halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the new legislation is in impact, they are going to immediately stop offering services for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the regulation is in impact, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks might be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a workers attorney for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will nonetheless grant us aid."

The brand new law prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, earlier than many ladies know they're pregnant. An identical invoice authorised in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic reduction in the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the process.

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

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have repeatedly treated patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking day without work of work, taking outing of college and taking time away from their household responsibilities 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 result of a medical emergency, but there are no exceptions if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would allow non-public citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a woman receive an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to remain in place, other 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 Courtroom.

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

The number of abortions performed every year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past two decades, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, based on information from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas law was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma were ladies from Texas.

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