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 Related 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 will uphold new restrictions.

“I would like Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within the nation," Stitt tweeted after signing the bill.

Stitt's signing of the invoice 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 decision that legalized abortion nearly 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 briefly halt the invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new law is in effect, they will instantly cease offering providers for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the regulation is in impact, which it now's as a result of the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks will likely be largely unavailable," mentioned 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, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will still grant us relief."

The new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity will be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks into a being pregnant, before many women know they're pregnant. An analogous invoice permitted in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic discount in the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, stated Texas' law that took impact in September has given their staff an idea of what a post-Roe country would possibly appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have often handled patients who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking day off of labor, taking day out of school and taking time away from their family tasks to get the care that till 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 aren't any exceptions if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest.

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit private citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a girl obtain an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket allowed that mechanism to stay in place, other Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure is just not set to take impact until this summer season, and legal specialists say it is prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade resolution nonetheless stays the law of the land.

The variety of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last two decades, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, according to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma have been women from Texas.

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