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 being pregnant

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

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

“I want Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state in 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 courtroom that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect instantly along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the bill. Abortion providers say now that the brand new law is in impact, they'll immediately cease providing providers for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the law is in impact, which it now could be as a result of the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a staff attorney for the New York-based Heart 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 docket will still grant us relief."

The brand new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity might be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. An analogous bill authorised in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic reduction in the variety 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 Great Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took effect in September has given their workers an thought of what a post-Roe country would possibly appear like.

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

The bill authorizes abortions if performed as the results of a medical emergency, however there aren't any exceptions if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest.

Like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would permit personal citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman receive an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to remain in place, different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure is just not set to take effect until this summer time, and legal consultants say it's likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination still stays the legislation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in keeping with knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas regulation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma were girls from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 women from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma every month, the info shows. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas ladies in September and 243 in October.