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 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 docket will uphold new restrictions.

“I need Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state in 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 high court docket that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect immediately with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the brand new law is in effect, they'll immediately cease offering services for ladies after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the legislation is in impact, which it now could be because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a staff attorney for the New York-based Middle 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 docket will still grant us reduction."

The brand new law prohibits abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks into a being pregnant, before many ladies know they are pregnant. A similar invoice accepted in Texas last year led to a dramatic discount in the number of abortions performed in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their employees an thought of what a post-Roe nation would possibly look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have regularly treated patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking break day of labor, taking outing of faculty and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they have been able to get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma bill would permit non-public residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady acquire an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to stay in place, other Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure just isn't set to take effect until this summer, and legal experts say it's prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade resolution still remains the legislation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out annually in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in response to data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, before the Texas regulation was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma had been girls from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma every month, the information reveals. That number jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.