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 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 Court will uphold new restrictions.

“I would like Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within the country," 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 court docket that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect immediately 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 brand new regulation is in effect, they may immediately cease providing providers for ladies 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 providers after six weeks will probably be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a staff attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will still grant us relief."

The brand new law prohibits abortions once cardiac activity may be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they are pregnant. An analogous invoice permitted in Texas final 12 months led to a dramatic discount in the variety of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Great Plains, said Texas' legislation that took effect in September has given their employees an idea of what a post-Roe nation would possibly appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have repeatedly treated patients who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking day without work of labor, taking trip of college and taking time away from their household duties to get the care that till September 2021 they were in a position to get safely and readily of their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if performed as the result of a medical emergency, however there are no exceptions if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest.

Like the Texas law, the Oklahoma invoice would enable non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket 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, although 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 is just not set to take impact until this summer time, and authorized consultants say it is likely to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade choice nonetheless stays the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the past twenty years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in line with data from the Oklahoma State Division of Health. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma had been women from Texas.

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