OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Steet on Tuesday signed a Texas-style abortion ban that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, part of a national initiative in GOP-led states hoping the conservative Supreme Court The United States will confirm new restrictions.
“I want Oklahoma to be the most professional state in the country,” Stitt wrote on Twitter after signing the bill.
Stitt’s signing of the bill comes after a draft opinion from the nation’s Supreme Court said it was considering weakening or repealing Rowe’s remarkable decision against Wade, which legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.
The bill, which Stitt signed, went into effect immediately with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an urgent request to suspend the bill. Abortion providers say that now that the new law is in force, they will immediately stop providing services to women after six weeks of pregnancy.
“As long as the law is in force, which is now because the governor signed it, abortion services will be largely unavailable in six weeks,” said Rabia Mukadam, a lawyer with the New York-based Reproductive Rights Center, which represents abortion providers. in Oklahoma in the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we hope the Oklahoma Supreme Court will still give us relief.
The new law bans abortion once heart activity can be detected in the embryo, which experts say is about six weeks after pregnancy, before many women find out they are pregnant. A similar bill, approved in Texas last year, has dramatically reduced the number of abortions performed in the state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the procedure.
Dr Iman Alsaddon, medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said the Texas law, which went into effect in September, gave employees an idea of what a country might look like after Rowe.
“Since that day, my colleagues and I have been regularly treating patients who are fleeing their communities to seek care,” Alsadden said. “They take their free time from work, take time away from school and take time away from their family responsibilities to receive the care they can receive safely and easily in their communities by September 2021.”
The bill allows abortions if they are performed as a result of emergency medical care, but there are no exceptions if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
Like the Texas law, the Oklahoma bill will allow private citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman have an abortion for up to $ 10,000. After the US Supreme Court allowed the mechanism to remain in place, other Republican-led states tried to copy Texas’ ban. The governor of Idaho signed the first copy measure in March, although it was temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.
Steve signed a bill earlier this year that made abortion a serious crime in Oklahoma, but the measure is expected to take effect this summer, and legal experts say it will likely be blocked as Rowe v. Wade’s decision continues. the law of the earth still remains.
The number of abortions performed each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has fallen steadily over the past two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, at least for more than 20 years, according to Oklahoma State Department of Health data. In 2020, before the Texas law was passed, about 9% of abortions performed in Oklahoma were Texas women.
Before the Texas ban came into effect on Sept. 1, about 40 Texas women had abortions in Oklahoma each month, according to the data. That number jumped to 222 women in Texas in September and 243 in October.
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