Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into legislation the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the primary in the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than felony prosecution, similar to a Texas regulation that was passed final 12 months. The law takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have stated they will cease performing the process as quickly because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign each piece of pro-life legislation that came throughout my desk and I am proud to keep that promise right this moment,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we have now a duty as human beings to do all the pieces we can to guard that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That is what I consider and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion providers throughout the nation have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority might further prohibit the follow, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact shall be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It would even have extreme ripple effects, especially for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in massive numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect in September.”

The bills are part of an aggressive push in Republican-led states to reduce abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court docket that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

The one exceptions in the Oklahoma legislation are to save lots of the lifetime of a pregnant lady or if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

The invoice particularly authorizes doctors to remove a “dead unborn little one attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The legislation additionally does not apply to the use of morning-after capsules similar to Plan B or any kind of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s 4 abortion clinics already stopped offering abortions after the governor signed a six-week ban earlier this month.

With the state’s two remaining abortion clinics expected to stop providing providers, it is unclear what is going to occur to ladies who qualify underneath one of many exceptions. The regulation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will likely be empowered to determine which ladies qualify and that those abortions can be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to show qualification might prove troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is one among no less than three anti-abortion payments sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to stay in place that enables personal citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a woman acquire an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

The third Oklahoma bill is to take effect this summer season and would make it a felony to carry out an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That invoice accommodates no exceptions for rape or incest.