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 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 Court will uphold new restrictions.

“I would like Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state in the nation," Stitt tweeted after signing the bill.

Stitt's signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's high courtroom that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the bill. Abortion providers say now that the new law is in effect, they are going to immediately stop offering companies for women after six weeks of being pregnant.

“Whereas the legislation is in impact, which it now's as a result of the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a employees lawyer for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will nonetheless grant us reduction."

The new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise could be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women know they're pregnant. The same bill accepted in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic reduction within the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, stated Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their staff an idea of what a post-Roe nation might look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've often treated patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking break day of labor, taking day trip of faculty and taking time away from their household tasks 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 carried out as the results of a medical emergency, however there are not any exceptions if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest.

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma bill would allow private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman obtain an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to stay 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 12 months signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure isn't set to take impact until this summer season, and authorized consultants say it is likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade decision still remains the legislation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out annually in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last twenty years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in keeping with data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was passed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been ladies from Texas.

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