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

“I would like Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within 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 excessive courtroom that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact immediately with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the bill. Abortion providers say now that the new law is in impact, they will immediately stop offering companies for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the law is in effect, which it now's as a result of the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a staff lawyer for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will still grant us reduction."

The new law prohibits abortions once cardiac activity will be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks into a being pregnant, before many women know they are pregnant. An analogous bill approved in Texas last year led to a dramatic reduction within the variety of abortions performed 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 Great Plains, said Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their staff an concept of what a post-Roe country would possibly look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've recurrently handled patients who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking break day of work, taking day out of faculty and taking time away from their household tasks to get the care that till September 2021 they had been capable of get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Just like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill would enable personal residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a lady obtain an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket allowed that mechanism to stay in place, different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure just isn't set to take effect till this summer season, and legal specialists say it's more likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination nonetheless remains the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has 4 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 more than 20 years, in accordance with data from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas regulation was passed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma have been women from Texas.

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