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 Could 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 docket will uphold new restrictions.

“I need Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state within the nation," 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 excessive court docket that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact immediately along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to temporarily halt the bill. Abortion providers say now that the brand new law is in effect, they are going to immediately cease offering services for women after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the regulation is in impact, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a employees attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket will still grant us relief."

The new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise could be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they're pregnant. A similar invoice approved in Texas final yr led to a dramatic discount within the variety of abortions carried out 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 Nice Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their staff an thought of what a post-Roe country might look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've regularly handled patients who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking break day of labor, taking trip of school and taking time away from their household obligations to get the care that till September 2021 they had been able to get safely and readily in their communities."

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

Just like the Texas law, the Oklahoma invoice would allow non-public residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady get hold of 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 copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure just isn't set to take impact till this summer time, and legal consultants say it is prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade resolution 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 past 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in response to information from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, before the Texas regulation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been women from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 women from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma each month, the info exhibits. That number jumped to 222 Texas ladies in September and 243 in October.