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, 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 probably the most pro-life state in the country," 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 high courtroom that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes impact instantly along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an emergency request to temporarily halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the new law is in impact, they will instantly stop providing providers for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the regulation is in effect, which it now's as a result of the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a workers lawyer 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 Court docket will nonetheless grant us reduction."

The brand new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise can be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, earlier than many ladies know they're pregnant. The same invoice authorised in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic reduction within the number of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Nice Plains, stated Texas' law that took impact in September has given their workers an concept of what a post-Roe country may look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have frequently handled sufferers who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking day without work of labor, taking trip of college and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they were capable of get safely and readily in their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if performed as the results of a medical emergency, however there are not any exceptions if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would permit private citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a woman acquire an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to stay in place, other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is just not set to take impact until this summer time, and authorized experts say it is likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade decision still remains the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past 20 years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in response to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, before the Texas law was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma have been ladies from Texas.

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