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 Might 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 want Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state in the country," 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's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

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

“Whereas the legislation is in effect, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks can be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a workers legal professional for the New York-based Heart 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 aid."

The new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks into a being pregnant, before many ladies know they are pregnant. The same invoice authorised in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic reduction within the number of abortions performed in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their workers an idea of what a post-Roe country might appear to be.

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

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the result of a medical emergency, but there are no exceptions if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma bill would allow personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady obtain an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to stay 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 quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure will not be set to take impact until this summer, and legal consultants say it's more likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade choice nonetheless stays the law of the land.

The number of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, based on data from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas regulation 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 each month, the info exhibits. That number jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.