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 pregnancy

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

“I want Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within 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 excessive court docket that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new law is in impact, they may immediately stop providing companies for girls after six weeks of pregnancy.

“Whereas the law is in impact, which it now is as a result of the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a workers legal professional for the New York-based Heart for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will still grant us reduction."

The new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, before many ladies know they are pregnant. An identical bill accredited in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic discount in the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, stated Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their workers an idea of what a post-Roe country would possibly seem like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have recurrently handled sufferers who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking time without work of labor, taking day out of faculty and taking time away from their family obligations to get the care that until September 2021 they were in a position to get safely and readily in their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the results of a medical emergency, but there are no exceptions if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest.

Like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma bill would allow non-public residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady receive an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to stay in place, different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this yr 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 time, and authorized consultants say it's more likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade resolution still stays the legislation of the land.

The number of abortions performed each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, according to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been ladies from Texas.

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