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 pregnancy

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

3 Might 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 Court docket will uphold new restrictions.

“I would like Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state in the nation," Stitt tweeted after signing the bill.

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

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect immediately along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the new legislation is in impact, they will immediately stop providing companies for girls after six weeks of pregnancy.

“Whereas the legislation is in impact, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks can be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a workers lawyer 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 reduction."

The new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity could be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, earlier than many women know they're pregnant. An analogous bill accepted in Texas final yr led to a dramatic reduction in the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their staff an concept of what a post-Roe nation might appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have repeatedly handled sufferers who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking time off of work, taking trip of college and taking time away from their family tasks to get the care that till September 2021 they were able to get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Just like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would enable personal citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman acquire an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket 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, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is just not set to take impact till this summer, and authorized experts say it is likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade resolution still stays the law of the land.

The number of abortions carried out annually in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last two decades, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, based on information from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas regulation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been ladies from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 women from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma each month, the information exhibits. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.