Oklahoma, Texas Region 'Already in a Post-Roe World'

Oklahoma joined Texas this week to form a region that parts of a nation divided over abortion care might look like if the US Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade. While abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the possibility that the high court's new conservative majority might further restrict abortion, that has especially been the case in Oklahoma, where lawmakers have passed a half-dozen anti-abortion measures this year, the AP reports. A bill signed into law on Tuesday by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt is similar to the law passed in Texas last year that led to a marked increase in women going to neighboring states, including Oklahoma, to get abortions.

The new Oklahoma law prohibits doctors from performing an abortion after fetal activity is detected in the embryo, which experts say is typically after about six weeks and before many women even know they are pregnant. And like Texas' law, it is enforced through civil, not criminal, courts and relies on civilians to inform on one another. Abortion providers in Oklahoma said they are prepared for the law to take effect and have been helping women get appointments at clinics in neighboring states. The new law authorizes abortions if they are performed as the result of a medical emergency, but there are no exceptions for if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Abortion providers in Oklahoma said they are prepared for the law to take effect and have been helping women get appointments at clinics in neighboring states. "I think something we realized in September (when the Texas law took effect) is that we are already living in a virtual post-Roe world in our region," says Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which operates clinics in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. "We have seen people go to extreme lengths to access abortion care: driving all night, doing whatever they can to get the basic health care they need for them and their families. We have been seeing what a post-Roe future looks like in this region of the country already, and it’s unbelievable." (A law Stitt signed in April will make it a felony to perform an abortion.)