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 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 pregnancy, a 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 probably the most pro-life state within the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

Stitt's signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's high court docket that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new law is in effect, they may immediately stop providing companies for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the legislation is in effect, which it now could be because the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks might be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a workers legal professional for the New York-based Center 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 Court will still grant us reduction."

The new law prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise could be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, earlier than many ladies know they're pregnant. An analogous bill accepted in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic discount in the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, stated Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their staff an thought of what a post-Roe country may appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've repeatedly handled patients who're 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 until September 2021 they had been capable of get safely and readily of their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the results of a medical emergency, however there aren't any exceptions if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma bill would enable private residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a woman acquire an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to stay in place, other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure will not be set to take impact till this summer season, and authorized experts say it is likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade resolution still stays the regulation of the land.

The number of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last twenty years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in response to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was passed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been ladies from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma every month, the data shows. That number jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.