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

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

Stitt's signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's excessive court docket that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

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

“While the law is in effect, which it now could be because the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks will likely be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a employees lawyer 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 docket will nonetheless grant us aid."

The brand new law prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise may be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, earlier than many women know they are pregnant. An analogous invoice authorised in Texas final year led to a dramatic reduction within the variety of abortions performed in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, mentioned Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their workers an concept of what a post-Roe nation would possibly appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have regularly treated sufferers who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking time off of work, taking day trip of faculty and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they had been able to get safely and readily of their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if carried out as the results of a medical emergency, but there are no exceptions if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas law, the Oklahoma invoice would allow non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a woman receive an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket allowed that mechanism to remain in place, different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure isn't set to take impact until this summer time, and authorized experts say it is likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade choice still stays the law of the land.

The number of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in line with knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, before the Texas law was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been ladies from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma every month, the data reveals. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas ladies in September and 243 in October.