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 being pregnant

By SEAN MURPHY Related Press

3 Might 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 being pregnant, part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court will uphold new restrictions.

“I would like Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state in 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 court that it is considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

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 bill. Abortion providers say now that the brand new legislation is in effect, they may instantly stop providing providers for ladies after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the regulation is in impact, which it now's as a result of the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a employees lawyer for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers 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 as soon as cardiac exercise might be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, before many women know they're pregnant. An analogous invoice accepted 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 Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' regulation that took effect in September has given their staff an concept of what a post-Roe nation may seem like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have recurrently treated sufferers who are 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 household tasks to get the care that until September 2021 they were capable of 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 invoice would allow private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a girl receive an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to remain 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 temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure will not be set to take impact until this summer, and legal specialists say it is prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade decision nonetheless remains the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, according to data from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma had been girls from Texas.

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