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Oklahoma clinic will shut down if Supreme Court ends Roe v. Wade

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After Carissa, a surgical tech, and Elise, a recovery room staff member, walked Veronica, Texan, to the recovery area. She had just received an abortion at Oklahoma City’s Trust Women Clinic in Oklahoma City. It was December 6, 2021.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Tulsa Women’s Clinic is one of the four Oklahoma abortion providers. It could close as early this summer, if Roe V. Wade is reaffirmed by the Supreme Court as it was expected to do later in this year.

Last week, a draft opinion of the High Court was leaked. It showed that the Conservative majority wants to reverse the decision. landmark 1973 rulingIt was legalized nationwide. The court could follow through on the draft opinion and cause a split between the states that allow abortion to be legalized or banned. This would leave millions of women without access to abortion.

According to Guttmacher Institute, an organization that supports abortion rights, Oklahoma is one 26-state state that has plans to ban all abortions, should Roe be overturned.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed April legislation makes performing an abortion a felonyYou could be sentenced to up to 10 years imprisonment or a fine of $100,000. There is an exception to the law for medical emergencies that place the mother’s safety in jeopardy, but it does not apply for cases of incest and rape. In August, the Supreme Court will end its term and Roe should have been ruled on. The abortion ban takes effect.

Andrea Gallegos (executive administrator, Tulsa Women’s Clinic) stated that “it would mean no abortion so it means no hospital.” Gallegos explained that they would be no longer able to provide the same service.

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said overturning Roe would further cement inequality in the U.S. health-care system, primarily punishing lower-income women, including minority communities that already struggle to access quality health care. Benjamin stated that people with sufficient financial resources who reside in states where abortion is banned will be allowed to travel to states where it remains legal.

It will not act as a barrier to the well-off. He said that lower-income women would.

Women who are pregnant and need to have an abortion may be forced to leave their home state, even though Roe is still in force. Texas passed the Texas Abortion Act. law last year banning most abortionsPatients began fleeing to Oklahoma clinics to get care. According to Gallegos, Tulsa Women’s Clinic had nearly three times as many patients than its San Antonio sister, Alamo Women’s Reproductive Services.

Gallegos stated that “We were a safe refuge for Texas patients fleeing the state in order to get care.”

Oklahoma is now a no-fly zone. Governor signed a law last weekTexas will be applying the same restrictions. After the Texas Supreme Court ruled, abortions are illegal. a heartbeat is detected in the embryoOn an ultrasound. This can occur as early as the sixth weeks of pregnancy. Oklahoma Heartbeat Act makes no exceptions to the law regarding rape and incest. Only medical emergencies like when the mother’s health is in danger, allow abortions.

Gallegos stated that many women discover they are pregnant around the same time and the window for accessing abortion is narrowing dramatically.

The law bans most abortions in Oklahoma. 2019 56.4% were carried out in the sixth week after the pregnancy began. This is the time when a heartbeat may be detected. Only 43.6% performed abortions before the six-week mark. according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Private individuals can sue anyone who “aids and abetts” or performs an abortion within six months of it being performed. For each abortion, the defendant could be subject to $10,000 damages. A patient seeking an abortion cannot be sued.

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Gallegos stated that it is not practical for Texas women now to travel to Oklahoma. Gallegos explained that Tulsa Women’s Clinic couldn’t perform abortions after the law was passed because half of those seeking it were not there before the embryo’s cardiac activity was detectable.

Oklahoma women may be turned away by Oklahoma. They will most likely travel across state lines in order to obtain abortions at nearby clinics. Arkansas KansasArkansas, which has less restrictive laws. Arkansas plans to ban abortion if Roe is overturned by the Supreme Court. This would mean that only four Kansas clinics, which were ruled for abortion rights by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2019, could serve the millions of residents of the area.

The scenario above would see Kansas’ wait times increase significantly due to the increased number of patients coming from other states. That would also limit access to clinics, says Zack Gingrich – Gaylord, spokesperson at Trust Women. Trust Women has abortion clinics located in Wichita and Oklahoma City.

Gingrich-Gaylord said, “The clinic system here in this area is just too weak to handle the loss so many clinics.”

The Food and Drug Administration has allowed women to order the abortion pill online. However, Oklahoma prohibits doctors from prescribing the pill and monitoring patients who are taking it. It is the pill. mifepristoneThe use of erectile dysfunction is allowed up to 10 week into pregnancy. About 54% of all early-pregnancy abortions in 2019 were performed with medical abortion with the pill. according to the CDC.

Briefs submitted to the Supreme Court by dozens of top national medical groups last year argued that abortion was a violation of human rights. safe and essential component of health care. These included the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association. 

Benjamin, a member of the public health organization said that Roe being overturned creates an “enormous threat for women’s healthcare.” 

He said, “When the procedure’s not performed under appropriate guidance in a safe and appropriate environment, there is a danger of septic infections and even death.” There is a danger of sterilization. You could get sterilized and even die.

Roe could lead to a decline in medical education for gynecologists and obstetricians on safe abortion procedures. A study last week published in Obstetrics and Gynology (a peer-reviewed medical journal) found that abortion training may drop to just 56% among residents if the state bans are implemented. According to the authors, training is not only important for abortive care but also for medical skills like managing miscarriages.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Dr. Jen Villavicencio called the Supreme Court’s draft ruling an unprecedented attack against women’s healthcare that will cause fear and confusion and hinder patients’ access for pregnancy care in general. Villavicencio stated that many women are now faced with the possibility of needing to travel for an abortion. The group has been working hard to expand the network of doctors to make it easier to access the care they require wherever you live.

She stated that “It is crucial that we increase access in states which it isn’t restricted to aid those who travel from wherever it is”, in an email statement to CNBC.

Governor. Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York State, has promised that anyone needing one, New York which allowed abortion to be legalized three years earlier than Roe v. Wade will provide safe harbour.

“This fundamental right is under attack.” Hochul said Thursday. Come to New York. It is home to the Women’s Rights Movement.

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