Oklahoma Republican governor Kevin Stitt signed a Texas-style abortion law Tuesday that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. Oklahoma is the second state to enact such a law, following the controversial Texas abortion ban, which authorizes private citizens to take civil action against anyone who they believe to have been involved with an unauthorized abortion.
The “Oklahoma Heartbeat Act” will take effect immediately and ban abortions when a physician can detect early cardiac activity in an embryo or fetus, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, a time before many women know that they are pregnant. The bill provides exceptions for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest. The legislation also stipulates that if a person provided an abortion or helped someone get the procedure “at the behest of federal agencies, contractors or employees,” they cannot be sued.
This abortion law is signed amid a leaked draft opinion published by Politico from the US Supreme Court which suggested that it is considering overturning the landmark decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide almost 50 years ago. If the decision is overruled, the court will allow states to decide whether to restrict abortion access or not.
Before the Bill was signed, abortion providers including Planned Parenthood and the Tulsa Women’s Reproductive Clinic challenged the Bill. The Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected an emergency request to temporarily halt the law.
According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, the number of abortions performed each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years. Last year, after Texas passed its abortion law, there was a substantial fall in the number of abortions performed in that state, with many women opting to have their abortions in Oklahoma and other nearby states.
Abortion providers in Oklahoma now are worried that since the new law is in effect, they will have to immediately stop providing services for women after six weeks of pregnancy. Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said:
Texas’ law that took effect in September has given their employees an idea of what a post-Roe country might look like. Since that day, my colleagues and I have regularly treated patients who are fleeing their communities to seek care. They’re taking time off of work, taking time out of school and taking time away from their family responsibilities to get the care that until September 2021 they were able to get safely and readily in their communities.
Earlier in April, Governor Stitt also signed into law a bill which made performing an abortion a felony. The law bans all abortions unless they are required to save a pregnant person’s life. The Bill, S.B. 612, has no exceptions for rape or incest and it is expected to take effect this summer, making performing or attempting to perform an abortion a felony punishable by a maximum fine of $100,000 and/or a maximum of 10 years in state prison.
