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

“I need Oklahoma to be 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's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect immediately along 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 are going to immediately cease offering services for women after six weeks of pregnancy.

“Whereas the regulation is in impact, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a workers legal professional for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket will still grant us reduction."

The new law prohibits abortions once cardiac activity might be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, before many ladies know they're pregnant. An analogous invoice authorized in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic reduction in the variety of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, stated Texas' law that took impact in September has given their employees an concept of what a post-Roe nation would possibly seem like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have frequently treated sufferers who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking day off of work, taking day trip of college and taking time away from their household tasks to get the care that till September 2021 they were able to get safely and readily of their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if performed 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 legislation, the Oklahoma bill would allow private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman obtain 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, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure will not be set to take impact till this summer time, and legal consultants say it is likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade choice still stays the law of the land.

The variety of abortions performed every year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, according to information from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been women 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 information exhibits. That number jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.