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 being pregnant

By SEAN MURPHY Related Press

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

“I need Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state in 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 courtroom that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact immediately 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 impact, they are going to immediately cease providing companies for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the legislation is in impact, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a staff attorney for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will nonetheless grant us relief."

The brand new law prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise 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. An analogous invoice accredited in Texas last yr 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 procedure.

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

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've recurrently handled patients who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking day without work of work, taking day trip of college and taking time away from their household obligations to get the care that until September 2021 they have been in a position to get safely and readily in their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if performed as the result of a medical emergency, but there are no exceptions if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma bill would allow non-public residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady receive an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket allowed that mechanism to remain in place, other 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 Court.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure isn't set to take effect until this summer time, and authorized specialists say it's prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade choice nonetheless remains the legislation of the land.

The variety of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has 4 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, in line with data from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, earlier than the Texas law was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma were girls from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 ladies from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma every month, the data reveals. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.