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, 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 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 high court docket that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to temporarily halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new law is in effect, they'll instantly cease providing companies for girls after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the regulation is in impact, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a employees attorney 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 Court docket will nonetheless grant us relief."

The new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, earlier than many ladies know they're pregnant. The same invoice authorized in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic discount in the variety of abortions carried out in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their workers an idea of what a post-Roe country would possibly appear like.

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

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

Like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma invoice would enable personal citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman receive an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to stay in place, other Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this year signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is not set to take impact until this summer, and legal specialists say it's more likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade decision still stays the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each 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 additional than 20 years, in accordance with knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas regulation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma have been girls from Texas.

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