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 first in the nation to effectively finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers permitted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits somewhat than felony prosecution, just like a Texas regulation that was handed last yr. The regulation takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they may stop performing the procedure as quickly because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd sign every bit of pro-life laws that got here across my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise immediately,” the first-term Republican said in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have now a responsibility as human beings to do every little thing we can to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mom. That's what I imagine and that is what the majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion providers across the nation have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority may additional prohibit the follow, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impression will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can even have extreme ripple results, especially for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in giant 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 cut back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court docket that means justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma legislation are to avoid wasting the life of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The invoice particularly authorizes medical doctors to remove a “lifeless unborn youngster caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The legislation additionally does not apply to the usage of morning-after capsules such as Plan B or any sort of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four 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 anticipated to stop offering services, it's unclear what's going to occur to girls who qualify underneath one of many exceptions. The regulation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors shall be empowered to resolve which girls qualify and that those abortions can be carried out in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to prove qualification may prove tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into law, the measure is one among not less than three anti-abortion payments despatched this 12 months to Stitt.

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

The third Oklahoma invoice is to take impact this summer and would make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by as much as 10 years in prison. That invoice incorporates no exceptions for rape or incest.