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 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, 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 probably the most pro-life state in the nation," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

Stitt's signing of the invoice 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 decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

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

“While the regulation is in impact, which it now's as a result of the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks will be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a staff lawyer for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will nonetheless grant us aid."

The new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac activity will be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they are pregnant. A similar invoice authorised in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic reduction in the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their employees an thought of what a post-Roe nation might appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have often handled patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time off of work, taking day out of school and taking time away from their family obligations to get the care that until September 2021 they have been in a position to get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Like the Texas law, the Oklahoma invoice would permit personal residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a girl get hold of 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, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is not set to take impact till this summer time, and legal specialists say it is prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination still stays the regulation of the land.

The number of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past 20 years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in line with knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas law was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been women from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 ladies from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma each month, the data reveals. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.