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 May 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, 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 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 court docket that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect instantly together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket on Tuesday denied an emergency request to temporarily halt the bill. Abortion providers say now that the brand new legislation is in effect, they are going to immediately cease offering companies for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the regulation is in impact, which it now is as a result of the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks will likely be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a employees legal professional for the New York-based Center 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 will still grant us relief."

The new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity might be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they are pregnant. An analogous bill authorized in Texas final yr led to a dramatic discount in the variety of abortions carried out 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 Great Plains, mentioned Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their workers an idea of what a post-Roe country might seem like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've recurrently handled sufferers who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking day off of labor, taking outing of school and taking time away from their household duties to get the care that until September 2021 they have been capable of get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma bill would enable personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady get hold of an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to stay in place, different 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 12 months signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure is just not set to take effect till this summer, and legal experts say it's more likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade choice nonetheless remains the legislation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily during 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 data from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, earlier than the Texas regulation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been girls from Texas.

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