Oklahoma governor indicators 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 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 docket will uphold new restrictions.

“I would like Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state within 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 high court docket that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion practically 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 invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the new regulation is in effect, they are going to instantly cease providing providers for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the regulation is in effect, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a employees 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, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will nonetheless grant us relief."

The brand new law prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise could be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many women know they are pregnant. An identical bill accepted in Texas last year led to a dramatic discount in the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.

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

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've often handled patients who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking day without work of work, taking day trip of college and taking time away from their household tasks to get the care that till September 2021 they had been 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 not any exceptions if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would permit private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady acquire an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to stay 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 Court.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure isn't set to take impact until this summer, and legal consultants say it's likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade determination nonetheless remains the legislation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last two decades, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in response to data from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, before the Texas law was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been ladies from Texas.

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