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 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 Court 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 courtroom that it is contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect instantly together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the brand new regulation is in effect, they'll immediately stop offering services for ladies after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the regulation is in impact, which it now's because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks might be largely unavailable," mentioned Rabia Muqaddam, a workers attorney for the New York-based Middle 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 Courtroom will still grant us relief."

The brand new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise may be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, before many women know they are pregnant. An analogous bill accredited in Texas last 12 months 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 process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' law that took effect in September has given their workers an idea of what a post-Roe nation would possibly seem like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have regularly treated sufferers who are fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time without work of work, taking time out of school and taking time away from their household tasks to get the care that until September 2021 they had been able to get safely and readily of their communities."

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

Just like the Texas law, the Oklahoma invoice would allow non-public residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to stay in place, different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this year signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is not set to take effect till this summer time, and authorized consultants say it is prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade choice still stays the legislation of the land.

The number 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 line with data from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma had been girls from Texas.

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