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 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 Courtroom will uphold new restrictions.

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

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect immediately with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the new regulation is in effect, they are going to immediately cease providing providers for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the legislation is in effect, which it now could be as a result of the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a staff lawyer for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket will nonetheless grant us relief."

The brand new law prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise might be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, before many ladies know they are pregnant. The same invoice authorised in Texas last year led to a dramatic reduction within the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the process.

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

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have regularly treated patients who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking time off of labor, taking day out of school and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they had been able to get safely and readily in their communities."

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

Like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would allow personal citizens to sue abortion suppliers 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 repeat 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 12 months signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure isn't set to take effect until this summer time, and legal consultants say it's prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade decision nonetheless remains the law of the land.

The number of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past 20 years, from greater 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, earlier than the Texas law was passed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been girls from Texas.

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