“We wish to select life in Oklahoma. We don’t wish to enable abortions within the state of Oklahoma,” Mr Stitt mentioned as he signed the invoice at a information convention.
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If it takes impact, the ban will widen a swath of the nation the place there may be little to no authorized abortion entry. Oklahoma has turn out to be a frequent vacation spot for Texas ladies looking for abortions for the reason that bigger neighbouring state in September banned abortions for pregnancies from about six weeks, earlier than many ladies even know they’re pregnant.
Deliberate Parenthood abortion suppliers in Oklahoma noticed an almost 2,500 per cent enhance in Texas sufferers within the months after the Texas legislation took impact in comparison with the identical interval in 2020, the organisation mentioned.
“The ban signed immediately is merciless and if it takes impact this summer season, could have a devastating impression on folks in Oklahoma, neighbouring Texans, in addition to a whole area going through assaults on their rights to abortion entry,” Melissa Fowler, the Nationwide Abortion Federation’s chief program officer, mentioned in an announcement.
White Home Press Secretary Jen Psaki condemned the ban in an announcement and known as on Congress to cross laws that will codify abortion rights nationally.
“The actions immediately in Oklahoma are part of disturbing nationwide pattern attacking ladies’s rights and the Biden Administration will proceed to face with ladies in Oklahoma and throughout the nation within the combat to defend their freedom to make their very own selections about their futures,” Ms Psaki mentioned.
Separate laws launched in Oklahoma this 12 months proposes banning virtually all abortions and counting on non-public residents to sue any one who “aids or abets” abortions, much like Texas’ six-week abortion ban. That invoice comprises an emergency clause, which might enable it to take impact instantly as soon as it’s signed by the governor.
Prior to now few months, Republican-led states like Oklahoma have been shortly passing ever-stricter abortion bans with the anticipation that an impending US Supreme Court docket resolution might assist the bans face up to authorized challenges.
The Supreme Court docket is because of rule by the top of June on a case involving a Republican-backed Mississippi legislation that offers its conservative majority an opportunity to undermine and even repeal the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalised abortion nationwide.
Throughout arguments within the case, the conservative justices signalled a willingness to dramatically curtail abortion rights in america.