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 being pregnant

By SEAN MURPHY Related 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 probably the most pro-life state in the country," 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 is considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes impact instantly along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the bill. Abortion providers say now that the brand new law is in impact, they'll immediately stop providing services for ladies after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the law is in effect, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a staff attorney for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will nonetheless grant us reduction."

The brand new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise can be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, before many ladies know they are pregnant. The same invoice authorised in Texas last year led to a dramatic discount in the variety 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 Nice Plains, mentioned Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their employees an idea of what a post-Roe country would possibly look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've frequently handled patients who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking break day of labor, taking outing of school and taking time away from their household tasks to get the care that until September 2021 they have been in a position to get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would enable private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to remain in place, different 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 will not be set to take effect until this summer time, and authorized experts say it's prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade choice nonetheless 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 twenty years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in line with knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, before the Texas law was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma were women from Texas.

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