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

“I would like Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state in 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 excessive courtroom that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes impact immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket on Tuesday denied an emergency request to temporarily halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new law is in effect, they will immediately stop providing providers for girls after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the law is in effect, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks might be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a staff attorney 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 still grant us reduction."

The new law prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise will be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many women know they're pregnant. An identical invoice approved in Texas final yr led to a dramatic reduction 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 Great Plains, stated Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their workers an thought of what a post-Roe nation might appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've often treated patients who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time without work of labor, taking trip of school and taking time away from their household obligations to get the care that till September 2021 they have been able to get safely and readily in their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the result of a medical emergency, but there are no exceptions if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a girl obtain an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court 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.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure will not be set to take effect till this summer, and legal consultants say it is more likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade decision still remains the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in response to data from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma were 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 data exhibits. That number jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.