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 May 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 the most pro-life state within 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 excessive courtroom that it is considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

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

“While the legislation is in effect, which it now is as a result of the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a employees attorney for the New York-based Middle 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 nonetheless grant us relief."

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

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Nice Plains, mentioned Texas' legislation that took effect in September has given their employees an thought of what a post-Roe country may appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've often treated sufferers who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time off of labor, taking outing of school and taking time away from their household tasks to get the care that till September 2021 they have been in a position 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.

Just like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would allow private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady get hold of an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to remain in place, other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is just not set to take effect till this summer time, and authorized consultants say it's likely to be blocked because 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 over the last two decades, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 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 law was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been women from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma each month, the info reveals. That number jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.