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 Could 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 docket will uphold new restrictions.

“I would like Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within 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 excessive courtroom that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

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

“While the legislation is in impact, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks might be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a staff lawyer 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 docket will still grant us reduction."

The brand new law prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise could be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, earlier than many women know they are pregnant. An analogous invoice accredited in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic discount in the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' law that took effect in September has given their staff an idea of what a post-Roe nation may appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've usually handled patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking break day of labor, taking trip of faculty and taking time away from their household obligations to get the care that till September 2021 they were in a position to get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma bill would enable personal residents to sue abortion providers or anybody 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, different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure shouldn't be set to take effect till this summer season, and authorized specialists say it's likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination still remains the legislation of the land.

The variety of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, according to information from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma were girls from Texas.

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