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

“I need Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state in the country," 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 court docket that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect immediately along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the new regulation is in impact, they will instantly cease offering companies for girls after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the legislation is in impact, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks will be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a workers 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, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will still grant us aid."

The new law prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise could be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, before many women know they're pregnant. An analogous invoice approved in Texas final yr led to a dramatic reduction within the variety of abortions carried out in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said Texas' legislation that took effect in September has given their employees an thought of what a post-Roe nation would possibly look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have commonly handled patients who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking break day of work, taking day out of school and taking time away from their household tasks to get the care that till September 2021 they had been in a position to get safely and readily of their communities."

The bill 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 law, the Oklahoma invoice would enable non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a woman get hold of an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to remain in place, other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is just not set to take effect till this summer time, and legal experts say it is prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade choice nonetheless stays the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past twenty years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, according to information from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, earlier than the Texas law was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma were ladies from Texas.

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