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 Associated Press

3 May 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 Court docket will uphold new restrictions.

“I would like Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state within the nation," 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 excessive courtroom that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect instantly together 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 brand new law is in effect, they'll immediately cease offering companies for ladies after six weeks of pregnancy.

“Whereas the law is in impact, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a workers attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will still grant us reduction."

The brand new law prohibits abortions once cardiac activity might be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, before many ladies know they are pregnant. The same invoice accepted in Texas last yr led to a dramatic reduction within the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, mentioned Texas' law that took impact in September has given their workers an thought of what a post-Roe country would possibly appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've usually handled patients who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking day off of labor, taking trip of school and taking time away from their household tasks to get the care that until September 2021 they were capable of get safely and readily of their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if performed as the results of a medical emergency, but there are not any exceptions if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady acquire an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to stay 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 briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is just not set to take impact till this summer season, and legal consultants say it's prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade decision nonetheless stays the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out 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 more than 20 years, in accordance with information from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been ladies from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma every month, the information exhibits. That number jumped to 222 Texas ladies in September and 243 in October.