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 Related 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, 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 essentially the most pro-life state within the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

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

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact instantly with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the new law is in impact, they may immediately cease providing companies for girls after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the law is in effect, which it now could be as a result of the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a workers lawyer for the New York-based Heart for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will still grant us reduction."

The new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise might be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, before many women know they are pregnant. A similar invoice accepted in Texas final yr led to a dramatic reduction within the variety of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said Texas' law that took effect in September has given their workers an concept of what a post-Roe nation might appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've recurrently treated patients who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking time off of work, taking day out of college and taking time away from their family obligations to get the care that until September 2021 they have been able to get safely and readily of their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the results of a medical emergency, but there aren't any exceptions if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest.

Like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma bill would allow non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a woman get hold of an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to remain in place, different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure will not be set to take effect until this summer, and legal experts say it is likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination still remains the legislation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past twenty years, from more 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 Department of Health. In 2020, before the Texas regulation was handed, 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 ladies from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma every month, the info shows. That number jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.