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

“I need Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within 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 high courtroom that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

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

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

The brand new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity will be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, before many women know they are pregnant. The same bill permitted in Texas last year led to a dramatic discount in the number of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the process.

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

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have commonly treated patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time off of labor, taking outing of college and taking time away from their household responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they were in a position to get safely and readily of their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if performed 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 regulation, the Oklahoma bill would enable private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a girl receive an abortion for up to $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 briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this year signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure will not be set to take effect till this summer season, and authorized experts say it's likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade decision still stays the law of the land.

The variety of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last twenty years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in response to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas law was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been women from Texas.

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