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 would like Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within 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's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes impact instantly together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the new regulation is in effect, they'll immediately cease providing services for girls 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 will be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a employees lawyer for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will still grant us aid."

The new law prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise could be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they are pregnant. An identical bill permitted in Texas last year led to a dramatic discount within the variety of abortions carried out in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' regulation that took effect in September has given their staff an concept of what a post-Roe country may seem like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have recurrently handled patients who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking time off of labor, taking time out of college and taking time away from their family tasks to get the care that till September 2021 they have been capable of get safely and readily in their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if carried out as the result of a medical emergency, but there are not any exceptions if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman receive 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 primary copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure is just not set to take impact till this summer, and authorized consultants say it is likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination still remains the law of the land.

The number of abortions carried out annually in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, according to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas law was passed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been women from Texas.

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