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

“I need Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state in 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 courtroom 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 impact immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the bill. Abortion providers say now that the new legislation is in impact, they may immediately cease providing providers for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the law is in effect, which it now could be as a result of the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks might be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a employees attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will nonetheless grant us reduction."

The new law prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise may be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks into a being pregnant, before many ladies know they're pregnant. The same bill authorised in Texas final year led to a dramatic discount in the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' regulation that took effect in September has given their employees an thought of what a post-Roe country may appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have recurrently handled sufferers who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking break day of work, taking time out of faculty and taking time away from their family obligations to get the care that till September 2021 they were able to get safely and readily of their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if performed as the results of a medical emergency, but there are no exceptions if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas law, the Oklahoma invoice would enable non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a girl receive an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to stay 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 briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure just isn't set to take effect until this summer time, and legal consultants say it's prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade choice still remains the legislation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last twenty years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in keeping with data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been women from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 ladies from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma every month, the info shows. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas ladies in September and 243 in October.