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 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 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 invoice.

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

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new law is in effect, they are going to immediately stop offering companies for ladies after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the regulation is in effect, which it now could be because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks will likely be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a workers legal professional for the New York-based Heart 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 docket will nonetheless grant us relief."

The new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity could be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, before many ladies know they're pregnant. An identical invoice permitted in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic discount within the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, mentioned Texas' regulation that took effect in September has given their staff an concept of what a post-Roe country might look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've repeatedly handled sufferers who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking day without work of labor, taking time out of faculty and taking time away from their family duties to get the care that until September 2021 they had been in a position to get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would allow private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a girl acquire an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to stay in place, different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is just not set to take impact till this summer time, and legal experts say it is likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade resolution still remains the law of the land.

The variety of abortions performed each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in accordance with information from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas law was passed, 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 girls from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma each month, the information shows. That number jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.