OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Home gave last approval on Thursday to a Texas-style abortion ban that prohibits the process after about six weeks of being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they’re pregnant.
The invoice accredited by the GOP-led Home on a 68-12 vote with out dialogue or debate now heads to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is predicted to signal it inside days. The assault on abortion rights is one among a number of culture-war points conservatives in GOP-led states have embraced, like proscribing LGBTQ rights, that drive the social gathering’s base in an election yr.
Dubbed the Oklahoma Heartbeat Act, the invoice prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise will be detected within the fetus, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant. An analogous invoice accredited in Texas final yr led to a dramatic discount within the variety of abortions carried out in that state, sending many ladies in search of the process to Oklahoma and different surrounding states.
Though Stitt already signed a invoice earlier this yr to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, that measure isn’t set to take impact till later in the summertime and won’t face up to a authorized problem.
As a result of the measure accredited Thursday has an “emergency” provision, it takes impact instantly after the governor indicators it, and abortion suppliers say will instantly finish most abortions in Oklahoma.
“We’re extra involved at this level about these Texas-style bans as a result of they’ve, at the least not too long ago, been capable of proceed and stay in impact,” mentioned Emily Wales, interim president and CEO at Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, which operates two abortion clinics in Oklahoma. “We do intend to problem these in the event that they’re handed, however due to the emergency clause provisions, there could be at the least some time frame after we couldn’t provide care.”
Like Texas, the invoice permits non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a girl receive an abortion for as much as $10,000, a mechanism that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to stay in place. Texas’ new legislation has led to an enormous improve within the variety of ladies from Texas in search of abortions in Oklahoma.
“We’re serving as many Texans as Oklahomans proper now, in some circumstances extra Texans than Oklahomans,” Wales mentioned.
Earlier than the Texas ban took impact final yr, about 40 ladies from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma every month, based on information from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas ladies in September and 243 in October, the company reported.
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