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

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

Stitt's signing of the invoice 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 choice that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect immediately along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new regulation is in impact, they'll immediately stop providing services for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the regulation is in effect, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a staff attorney for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will still grant us reduction."

The brand new regulation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise can be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks into a being pregnant, earlier than many women know they're pregnant. An identical bill permitted in Texas final year led to a dramatic discount 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 Planned Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their employees an idea of what a post-Roe nation would possibly look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have repeatedly handled sufferers who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking break day of labor, taking day out of school and taking time away from their household responsibilities to get the care that till September 2021 they were capable of get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Just like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma bill would permit personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady get hold of an abortion for up to $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 temporarily 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 isn't set to take impact until this summer, and authorized consultants say it's more likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination still stays the law of the land.

The variety of abortions performed every year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past twenty years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in accordance with knowledge 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 were ladies from Texas.

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