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 Related 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 Courtroom will uphold new restrictions.

“I want Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state within the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the bill.

Stitt's signing of the bill 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 decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect immediately with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new regulation is in effect, they are going to instantly cease offering companies for ladies after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the law is in impact, which it now could be because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a staff legal professional for the New York-based Middle 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 nonetheless grant us relief."

The new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise can be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they are pregnant. The same invoice authorized in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic reduction in the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their staff an idea of what a post-Roe country may appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have often handled patients who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking day without work of labor, taking day out of faculty and taking time away from their household duties to get the care that until September 2021 they were able to get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma bill would enable private citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman acquire 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 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.

Stitt earlier this year signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure is not set to take impact till this summer season, and authorized experts say it is prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade resolution nonetheless remains the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past two decades, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, based on information from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma had been ladies from Texas.

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