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

“I would like Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state within the country," 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 excessive court docket that it is considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to temporarily halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the new regulation is in impact, they may instantly cease offering companies for girls after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the law is in impact, which it now could be because the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks can be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a employees attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will still grant us aid."

The brand new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise may be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, before many ladies know they are pregnant. A similar bill authorised in Texas last year led to a dramatic reduction in the variety of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Nice Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took effect in September has given their employees an concept of what a post-Roe country would possibly look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've often handled patients who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking break day of work, taking trip of faculty and taking time away from their family obligations to get the care that until September 2021 they have been capable of get safely and readily in their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the results of a medical emergency, however there are not any exceptions if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would allow private residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a girl obtain an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to remain in place, different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though 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, but that measure isn't set to take impact until this summer, and authorized consultants say it's likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade determination still remains the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, based on data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas regulation was passed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been girls from Texas.

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