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

“I would like Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within 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 high court docket that it is considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the new legislation is in impact, they may immediately stop offering providers for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the law is in impact, which it now could be because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a workers lawyer for the New York-based Center 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 Court docket will still grant us aid."

The new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac activity could be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, earlier than many ladies know they are pregnant. An analogous bill authorised in Texas last yr 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 process.

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

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have usually treated patients who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking day off of labor, taking day trip of college and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that until September 2021 they had been able to get safely and readily of their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the result of a medical emergency, but there are not any exceptions if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest.

Like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would permit private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman acquire an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to remain in place, different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this year signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure will not be set to take impact till this summer, and legal specialists say it is more likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade resolution nonetheless remains the regulation 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 response to data from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas regulation was passed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma have been women from Texas.

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