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 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 want Oklahoma to be essentially 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 high court that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

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

“Whereas the legislation is in impact, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks will be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a employees lawyer for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will still grant us reduction."

The brand new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise will be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, before many ladies know they are pregnant. The same invoice approved in Texas final yr led to a dramatic discount in the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

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

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have repeatedly treated sufferers who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking day without work of labor, taking trip of college and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they had been able to get safely and readily of their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if performed as the results of a medical emergency, however there are not any exceptions if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma bill would permit non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a girl get hold of an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket 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, though it has been briefly 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 will not be set to take effect until this summer season, and legal consultants say it's likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade resolution nonetheless stays the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions performed every year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last two decades, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in response to information from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, earlier than the Texas law was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma have been ladies from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 ladies from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma each month, the data reveals. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.