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 pregnancy

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 Courtroom will uphold new restrictions.

“I want Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state in the nation," 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 court docket that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

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

“While the legislation is in impact, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks might be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a employees lawyer for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers 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 legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity may be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, earlier than many women know they are pregnant. An identical invoice accredited in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic reduction within the number of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, stated Texas' law that took impact in September has given their workers an idea of what a post-Roe nation would possibly look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have frequently handled patients who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking day without work of labor, taking time out of college and taking time away from their household responsibilities to get the care that until September 2021 they had been capable of get safely and readily in their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the result of a medical emergency, however 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 enable non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady acquire 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 primary copycat measure in March, although 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, however that measure is not set to take impact until this summer time, and authorized experts say it is prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade decision still stays the law of the land.

The number of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last 20 years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in keeping with information from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma were women from Texas.

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