Oklahoma Passes a More Restrictive Texas-Style Abortion Ban

The Oklahoma legislature on Thursday handed a Texas-style invoice banning almost all abortions within the state that, with the governor’s signature, would grow to be the strictest abortion legislation within the nation.

The invoice, modeled after the mechanism of Texas’ SB 8, which deputizes personal residents as its enforcers and has proved troublesome to problem in court docket, now heads to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has pledged to signal any invoice proscribing the process that reaches his desk.

However the invoice goes a step additional than the Texas legislation, banning abortion after fertilization has occurred reasonably than when a heartbeat may be detected and represents at the least the third restrictive – and generally redundant – invoice prohibiting the process to move to the governor’s desk within the final two months alone.

Two weeks in the past, simply after the leaked Supreme Court docket draft opinion shook the nation, Stitt signed one other Texas-style abortion ban into place, banning the process after six weeks of being pregnant. That ban additionally adopted a near-total abortion ban Stitt signed into legislation final month, posing a felony cost for suppliers who carry out abortions, which is slated to take impact this summer season. The state moreover has a set off ban that may get rid of entry to the process if Roe v. Wade is overturned, in addition to a pre-Roe abortion ban on the books that may likewise restrict the process.

“We wish to make all abortions unlawful within the state of Oklahoma,” Stitt mentioned at a invoice signing occasion in April. “This must be a state problem.”

Proponents of abortion entry have warned for months that Oklahoma is turning into the following battleground over the difficulty. As Texas’ northern neighbor, Oklahoma has, for the reason that Texas abortion ban took impact, been inundated with sufferers looking for abortions out of state. In line with a current examine from the College of Texas at Austin, Oklahoma has offered round 45% of all abortions for Texas sufferers who’ve traveled out of state to evade the brand new restrictions. Stitt mentioned final month that he hopes laws will “curb” that pattern.