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 Associated Press

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

“I want Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state in the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

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

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

“Whereas the legislation is in impact, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a workers lawyer for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will nonetheless grant us aid."

The brand new law prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise might be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, before many women know they're pregnant. An identical bill approved in Texas final yr led to a dramatic reduction within the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their staff an idea of what a post-Roe nation might seem like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have usually handled sufferers who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking day without work of labor, taking trip of college and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they had been capable of get safely and readily in their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if performed as the results of a medical emergency, however there are not any exceptions if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma bill would enable private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman get hold of 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 primary copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this year signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure shouldn't be set to take impact until this summer season, and legal specialists say it is prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade decision nonetheless stays the regulation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out annually in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, according to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been ladies from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma every month, the data shows. That number jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.