现在这将是一项重罪在俄克拉荷马州堕胎根据共和党州长凯文·斯蒂特周二签署的法案。
账单上周在州议会通过去年在参议院通过后没有任何争论。
根据新法律，任何实施堕胎手术的医务人员都将面临10万美元的罚款和长达10年的监禁。堕胎的唯一例外是母亲有生命危险。
新法律计划于8月生效，但预计会在法庭上受到质疑。
美国计划生育联合会和生殖权利中心表示，他们将“挑战俄克拉荷马州在本届会议上签署成为法律的任何禁令。”
“今天签署的法律尚未生效，堕胎在俄克拉荷马州仍然合法，”大平原计划生育临时首席执行官兼总裁艾米丽·威尔士在一份声明中说。
俄克拉荷马州新的堕胎限制尤为重要，因为自去年以来，该州在为该地区妇女提供堕胎服务方面发挥了巨大作用德克萨斯州颁布了一项法律，禁止几乎所有的堕胎怀孕六周后。
威尔士表示，到2022年为止，俄克拉荷马州两家提供堕胎服务的计划生育诊所已经接待了更多来自德克萨斯州的患者。
“我们知道需要堕胎的患者不会停止寻求堕胎，他们只会越来越难获得堕胎服务，”威尔士上周在俄克拉荷马州众议院通过该法案时告诉ABC新闻..“现在，患者可能要离家几百英里，五六个小时，他们要再花五六个小时才能到达堪萨斯城地区或威奇托，对一些患者来说，这是不可行的。”
Trust Women的医疗主任克里斯蒂娜·伯恩(Christina Bourne)博士说，由于需求的增加，诊所不得不将人们拒之门外。
伯恩上周说:“我们基本上必须让绝大多数人远离堕胎，因为我们跟不上堕胎的数量。”。“我们可能一天24小时都在堕胎，跟不上对我们的需求。”
俄克拉荷马州立法机构也仍在考虑更多限制堕胎的立法，包括一项上个月众议院通过的法案这是仿照得克萨斯州的法律，允许公民起诉任何实施或“帮助和教唆”堕胎的人，最高罚款1万美元。俄克拉荷马州参议院最近也通过了几项反堕胎措施，包括一项法案允许私人诉讼。
堕胎服务距离更远
专家说，鉴于更多的限制，有能力的妇女将不得不去更远的地方进行堕胎护理，而那些没有能力的妇女将得不到护理。
“我们预计，在其他州仍然开放的设施将不堪重负，正如我们已经看到的参议院第8号法案，来自其他州的居民来获得照顾，”说卡莉·怀特博士她是位于奥斯汀的德克萨斯大学的副教授和研究助理。“对于有些人来说，这种长距离是不可能的，他们会考虑通过网上订购药物或潜在的不安全行为来结束怀孕，而其他人将被迫继续怀孕。”
怀特也是德克萨斯州政策评估项目的首席调查员，他研究了德克萨斯州为期六周的堕胎禁令的影响。根据她的研究自SB8于9月生效以来，每月约有1400名德州人前往另一个州进行堕胎护理，其中45%前往俄克拉荷马州。
她说:“我们在研究中采访了一些人，他们肯定听说过，他们愿意在俄克拉荷马州多等一会儿再去堕胎，因为他们可以去俄克拉荷马州，但去新墨西哥这样的州太远了。”。“就额外的成本、离开工作的时间或照顾孩子的责任而言，他们无法做到这一点。”
新墨西哥州和科罗拉多州的堕胎限制不那么严格，可能会成为该地区有能力前往堕胎护理的妇女的热点。
这些州也感受到了SB8的影响，据Planned Parenthood报道，与前一年相比，科罗拉多州计划生育健康中心德克萨斯州邮政编码的堕胎患者增加了1000%以上，新墨西哥州计划生育健康中心的堕胎患者增加了100%以上。
专家说，俄克拉荷马州周围的其他州——堪萨斯、密苏里和阿肯色州——也面临堕胎限制，正在处理已经不堪重负的系统。
威尔士表示，由于州政府的限制，密苏里州两家提供堕胎护理的计划生育诊所已经依法关闭了几年。他补充说，“密苏里州人长期以来一直生活在德克萨斯州的危机中，其中大多数人已经被迫逃离家乡寻求护理。”
堪萨斯堕胎基金是一个志愿者经营的非营利组织，帮助资助堪萨斯妇女寻求堕胎护理。据该组织主席桑迪·布朗说，目前阿肯色州全州约有三家堕胎诊所，堪萨斯州有四家。
“我们这里的诊所已经人满为患，”布朗说。“他们无法吸收来自其他州的大量移民。现在，如果俄克拉荷马州发生了，那真的真的会很糟糕，因为我们已经几乎不能处理现在进来的病人了。”
堪萨斯州将在8月的初选中就堪萨斯宪法的拟议修正案进行投票，该修正案将允许立法者颁布禁令，如果美国最高法院推翻1973年罗伊诉韦德案的裁决，保护堕胎权利，据美联社报道。
更多的州将在最高法院裁决后采取行动
目前，在胎儿能够存活之前通过堕胎禁令是违反宪法的，从22周到26周不等。
在五月或六月最高法院将宣布其裁决密西西比州为期15周的禁令以及它是否符合宪法。如果最高法院裁定禁令符合宪法，这可能意味着罗伊诉韦德案要么被推翻，要么从根本上被削弱。
根据一项调查，如果罗伊案被推翻，美国50个州中超过一半的州准备禁止堕胎古特马赫研究所的报告一个生殖权利组织。
如果发生这种情况，另一个需要关注的因素将是，已经禁止堕胎的州是否会让其居民越来越难以在其他州堕胎，哈佛大学法学院(Harvard Law School)宪法学客座教授玛丽·齐格勒(Mary Ziegler)是《堕胎与美国法律:罗伊诉韦德案(Roe v. Wade to the Present)》的作者今年早些时候告诉ABC新闻。
与此同时，堕胎权利倡导者和提供者表示，他们担心人们不得不长途跋涉寻求堕胎护理，这意味着最弱势的人，如那些没有经济能力旅行的人，被落在了后面。
“旅行是一种选择，并且一直是富裕白人的选择，”伯恩说。“通过堕胎限制，我们正在为那些经历交叉身份的人、贫困者、有色人种、同性恋者、有很多孩子的人、生活忙碌的人立法，这些人将被排除在外，被迫怀孕，否则可能不会怀孕。”
大平原计划生育协会的威尔士表示，由于俄克拉荷马州和堪萨斯州的诊所对堕胎服务的需求增加，这导致了一般生殖健康保健服务的延迟，如避孕和癌症筛查，这占了诊所的大部分工作。
“堕胎需求的增加和各州的限制...这些事情使得计划生育患者和其他类型的护理倒退了，”威尔士说。“这也意味着我们的计划生育患者越来越关心，越来越不知道他们能得到什么，因为他们知道自己的权利受到了限制。”
“我认为，这在我们看到的人当中造成了很大的恐惧，”她说。
Oklahoma governor signs law making nearly all abortions illegal
It will now be a felony toperform an abortion in Oklahomaunder a bill signed into law Tuesday by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt.
The billpassed in the state House last weekwithout any debate after passing the Senate last year.
Under the new law, any medical provider who performs an abortion would face a fine of $100,000 and up to 10 years in prison. The only exceptions for performing an abortion would be if the mother's life is in danger.
The new law is scheduled to take effect in August, but it is expected to be challenged in court.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Center for Reproductive Rights have said they will "challenge any ban that is signed into law in Oklahoma this session."
"The law signed today is not yet in effect, and abortion remains legal in Oklahoma," Emily Wales, interim CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said in a statement.
The new abortion restriction in Oklahoma is particularly significant because of the outsized role the state has played in providing abortion access to women in the region since last year, whenTexas enacted a law that bans nearly all abortionsafter six weeks of pregnancy.
So far in 2022, the two Planned Parenthood clinics in Oklahoma that offer abortion services have seen more patients from Texas than from Oklahoma, according to Wales.
"We know that patients who need abortion are not going to stop seeking it, it's just going to get harder and harder for them to access," Wales told ABC News last week, when the bill passed the Oklahoma state House.. "Right now, patients may be traveling a few hundred miles from home, five or six hours, they're going to add another five or six hours to get to the Kansas City area or to Wichita, and for some patients, that won't be feasible."
Dr. Christina Bourne, medical director of Trust Women, which operates an abortion care clinic in Oklahoma City and one in Wichita, Kansas, said the clinics are having to turn people away because of the demand.
"We are essentially having to turn the vast majority of people away from getting abortions because we just cannot keep up with the volume," Bourne said last week. "We could be doing abortions 24 hours a day and not keep up with the volume that is demanded of us."
The Oklahoma legislature is also still considering more legislation to restrict abortion access, including abill that passed the House last monththat is modeled after Texas's law and allows for citizens to sue for up to $10,000 anyone who performs or "aids and abets" an abortion. The Oklahoma Senate has also passed several anti-abortion measures recently, including a billthat allows for private lawsuits.
Abortion access at a greater distance
Experts say that in light of more restrictions, women who have the means will have to travel further for abortion care, while those who don't will not get care.
"We expect that the facilities that remain open in other states will be overwhelmed, as we have already seen with Senate Bill 8, with residents from other states coming in to get care," saidDr. Kari White, an associate professor and faculty research associate at the University of Texas at Austin. "And there are some people for whom these longer distances are are just going to be impossible, and they will consider either other ways to try to end their pregnancies by ordering medications online or potentially doing something unsafe, and other people will be forced to continue their pregnancies."
White, who is also the lead investigator of the Texas Policy Evaluation Project, has studied the impact of Texas’ six-week abortion ban.According to her research, around 1,400 Texans have gone to another state for abortion care each month since SB8 went into effect in September, with 45% traveling to Oklahoma.
"We’ve certainly heard from some of the people we’ve interviewed in our study that they were willing to wait a little bit longer to get an abortion in Oklahoma because they could travel to Oklahoma, but it was too far for them to go to a state like New Mexico," she said. "They just couldn’t make it work in terms of the additional cost, the time away from work or their child care responsibilities."
New Mexico and Colorado, which have less stringent abortion restrictions, are likely to become hotspots for women in the region who have the means to travel for abortion care.
Those states have also felt the impact from SB8, according to Planned Parenthood, which reported a more than 1000% increase in abortion patients with Texas zip codes at Planned Parenthood health centers in Colorado and a more than 100% increase at Planned Parenthood health centers in New Mexico compared to the previous year.
Other states that surround Oklahoma -- Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas -- face their own restrictions on abortion access and are dealing with already overwhelmed systems, experts say.
The two Planned Parenthood clinics that provided abortion care in Missouri have been closed in the law few years due to state restrictions, according to Wales, who added, "Missourians for a long time have been living the Texas crisis, where the majority of them are forced to flee their home state for care already."
Arkansas has around three abortion clinics statewide currently, while Kansas has four, according to Sandy Brown, president of the Kansas Abortion Fund, a volunteer-run, nonprofit organization that helps fund Kansan women seeking abortion care.
"Our clinics here have been swamped," Brown said. "They just can't absorb the volume of people coming in from other states. Now, if Oklahoma happens, it's really, really going to be bad, because we already can't almost handle the patients that are coming in now."
Kansans are set to vote in August's primary election on a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would allow lawmakers to enact a ban if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that protects abortion rights,according to the Associated Press.
More states expected to act after anticipated Supreme Court ruling
Currently, it is unconstitutional to pass abortion bans before a fetus is viable -- anywhere from 22 to 26 weeks.In May or June, theSupreme Court will announce its rulingon a 15-week ban in Mississippi and whether or not it is constitutional. If the Supreme Court determines the ban is constitutional, it could mean Roe v. Wade is either overturned or fundamentally weakened.
More than half of the nation's 50 states are prepared to ban abortion if Roe is overturned, according to areport from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization.
If that happens, another factor to watch will be whether states that have banned abortion make it increasingly difficult for their residents to obtain abortions in other states, Mary Ziegler, visiting professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and author of "Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v. Wade to the Present,"told ABC News earlier this year.
In the meantime, abortion rights advocates and providers say they worry that the far distances people are having to travel to seek abortion care means the most vulnerable people, such as those without the financial resources to travel, are being left behind.
"Traveling is an option and has always been an option for affluent white people," Bourne said. "Through abortion restrictions, we are legislating people who experience intersecting identities, poverty, people of color, queer folks, people with many children, people with busy lives who are going to be left out of that and forced to carry a pregnancy to term that perhaps otherwise wouldn't have."
Wales, of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said that as clinics in Oklahoma and Kansas have seen increased demand for abortion services, that has resulted in a delay in services for the type of general reproductive health care, like contraception and cancer screening, that makes up the majority of the clinics' work.
"The increased need in abortion and the restrictions from the states ... those things have pushed family planning patients and other types of care back," Wales said. "It also means our family planning patients are coming in more concerned, more confused about what is available to them, because they just understand that rights are being restricted."
"It has created a great deal of fear, I think, among the people we see," she said.
