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 the most pro-life state within 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 high court that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

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

“While the law is in effect, which it now could be because the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a staff attorney 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 reduction."

The brand new legislation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac activity might be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks into a being pregnant, before many women know they're pregnant. An analogous bill accredited in Texas last yr led to a dramatic discount in 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 Planned Parenthood Nice Plains, stated Texas' law that took effect in September has given their workers an idea of what a post-Roe nation might appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've repeatedly treated patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking time without work of work, taking time out of school and taking time away from their family tasks to get the care that until September 2021 they have been in a position to get safely and readily in their communities."

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

Like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma bill would permit private residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady acquire 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 primary copycat measure in March, though it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure shouldn't be set to take impact until this summer season, and legal experts say it's prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination still stays the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, based on information from the Oklahoma State Department 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.

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