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 Related Press

3 Might 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, a 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 nation," Stitt tweeted after signing the bill.

Stitt's signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's high courtroom that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect immediately with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to temporarily halt the bill. Abortion providers say now that the brand new law is in impact, they'll instantly stop offering companies for ladies after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the regulation is in effect, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks can be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a employees lawyer for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will nonetheless grant us aid."

The brand new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise might be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, before many ladies know they're pregnant. The same invoice permitted in Texas last yr led to a dramatic reduction in the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Nice Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took effect in September has given their workers an thought of what a post-Roe country might appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've regularly treated patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time without work of labor, taking day trip of faculty and taking time away from their household responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they were in a position to get safely and readily of their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if carried out as the result of a medical emergency, but there aren't any exceptions if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma bill would enable private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a girl obtain an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to remain in place, different 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, but that measure is not set to take effect till this summer season, and legal experts say it's more likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination nonetheless stays the regulation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past two decades, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, based on data from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, earlier than the Texas law was passed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma were girls 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 data exhibits. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.