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

“I want Oklahoma to be essentially the most pro-life state in 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 high court docket that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact instantly with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the new regulation is in impact, they are going to immediately stop providing services for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the regulation is in impact, which it now is as a result of the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a staff legal professional for the New York-based Heart 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 reduction."

The brand new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac activity might be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. The same bill permitted in Texas final year led to a dramatic reduction within the number of abortions performed in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Nice Plains, mentioned Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their employees an idea of what a post-Roe country would possibly appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have usually handled patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking day off of labor, taking day out of faculty and taking time away from their household obligations to get the care that till September 2021 they have been capable of get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would allow private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a girl acquire an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket allowed that mechanism to stay in place, other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a bill 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 experts say it is likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade decision nonetheless remains the regulation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out every year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in accordance with knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, before the Texas law was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been girls from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma each month, the data reveals. That number jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.