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 Might 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 need Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the bill.

Stitt's signing of the invoice comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's excessive court that it's contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 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 temporarily halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the new regulation is in effect, they may immediately stop offering services for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the law is in impact, which it now could be as a result of the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a staff attorney for the New York-based Heart 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 brand new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise might be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks right into a pregnancy, earlier than many women know they're pregnant. An analogous invoice accepted in Texas last yr led to a dramatic reduction within the number of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, stated Texas' regulation that took impact in September has given their staff an thought of what a post-Roe nation would possibly look like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have recurrently handled sufferers who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking time off of work, taking day out of school and taking time away from their family duties to get the care that until September 2021 they were capable of get safely and readily in their communities."

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

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would permit non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady acquire an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to stay in place, different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom.

Stitt earlier this year signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is not set to take effect until this summer time, and authorized specialists say it's prone to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination still stays the law of the land.

The number of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last 20 years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in line with data from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas law was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma have been ladies from Texas.

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