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 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 Courtroom will uphold new restrictions.

“I want Oklahoma to be 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 that it is considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect instantly together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the new legislation is in effect, they are going to instantly cease providing companies for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the legislation is in impact, which it now is as a result of the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a workers lawyer for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will still grant us reduction."

The new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac activity could be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, earlier than many ladies know they are pregnant. An identical bill permitted in Texas last yr led to a dramatic reduction in the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took effect in September has given their staff an concept of what a post-Roe country may look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've repeatedly treated patients who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking day off of labor, taking outing of college and taking time away from their household responsibilities to get the care that until September 2021 they had been able to 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 pregnancy is the results of rape or incest.

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit personal citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady receive an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to remain in place, other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure isn't set to take impact till this summer season, and authorized experts say it's prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade resolution still stays the legislation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last twenty years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in accordance with information from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, before the Texas regulation was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been women 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 information exhibits. That number jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.