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

“I need Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state within the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

Stitt's signing of the invoice comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's excessive court that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact immediately with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket on Tuesday denied an emergency request to temporarily halt the invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new legislation is in impact, they'll instantly stop providing companies for ladies after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the legislation is in effect, which it now's as a result of the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks can be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a workers attorney for the New York-based Center 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 Court will still grant us relief."

The new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity could be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, before many women know they are pregnant. A similar bill permitted in Texas last year 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 process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Nice Plains, mentioned Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their workers an concept of what a post-Roe country might appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have recurrently handled sufferers who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking time off of labor, taking trip of college and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that until September 2021 they have been able to get safely and readily in their communities."

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

Just like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit personal residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a girl obtain an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket 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, though it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure just isn't set to take effect until this summer time, and legal experts say it is likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination nonetheless stays the law of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past twenty years, 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 Division of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas law was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been women from Texas.

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