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 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, part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court will uphold new restrictions.

“I need Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the bill.

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

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

“While the legislation is in impact, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a employees 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, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket will still grant us relief."

The brand new legislation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise will be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. An analogous bill authorized in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic discount in the variety 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 Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, said Texas' legislation that took effect in September has given their employees an concept of what a post-Roe country might look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have recurrently treated sufferers who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking time without work of work, taking day trip of faculty 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 invoice authorizes abortions if performed as the results 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 bill would permit non-public citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady get hold of an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court 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 briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure just isn't set to take impact till this summer time, and legal consultants say it's prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade decision still stays the regulation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out annually in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last twenty years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, based on data from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma were ladies from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 ladies from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma each month, the info exhibits. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.