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 Could 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 docket will uphold new restrictions.

“I want Oklahoma to be 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 high court that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes impact immediately along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the brand new law is in effect, they may immediately cease providing services for ladies after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the law is in impact, which it now is as a result of the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks will be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a workers 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, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will still grant us reduction."

The new law prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac activity could be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. The same invoice authorised in Texas last yr led to a dramatic discount within 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' regulation that took impact in September has given their workers an idea of what a post-Roe country may appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've regularly handled patients who are fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time off of work, taking outing of school and taking time away from their household 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 carried out as the result of a medical emergency, but there are not any exceptions if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma bill would enable personal residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman get hold of an abortion for as much as $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 first copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure shouldn't be set to take impact till this summer season, and legal experts say it's prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade resolution still stays the law of the land.

The number of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in response to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas regulation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma were women from Texas.

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