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

“I need Oklahoma to be 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 decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes impact immediately along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the new law is in effect, they will immediately stop providing companies for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the regulation is in effect, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks will be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a staff lawyer for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion suppliers in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket will nonetheless grant us reduction."

The brand new legislation prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac activity might be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they're pregnant. The same bill approved in Texas last year led to a dramatic discount within the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, mentioned Texas' law that took impact in September has given their employees an concept of what a post-Roe country may look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have often handled sufferers who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking break day of labor, taking time out of school and taking time away from their family tasks to get the care that till September 2021 they had been capable of get safely and readily in their communities."

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

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit personal residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a woman receive an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to remain 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.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure just isn't set to take effect until this summer, and legal experts say it's likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade decision still stays the regulation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out each year 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, according to knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma were women from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions performed in Oklahoma every month, the info reveals. That number jumped to 222 Texas women in September and 243 in October.