Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into regulation the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the first within the nation to successfully end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers permitted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits somewhat than legal prosecution, much like a Texas legislation that was passed final year. The law takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they are going to cease performing the process as quickly because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd sign every bit of pro-life legislation that came throughout my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise right this moment,” the first-term Republican said in an announcement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we now have a responsibility as human beings to do every part we will to guard that child’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That's what I believe and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers across the nation have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority might further restrict the observe, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

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

The payments 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 high courtroom that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

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

The bill particularly authorizes doctors to take away a “useless unborn baby attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The regulation additionally does not apply to the usage of morning-after tablets reminiscent of Plan B or any sort 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 offering companies, it is unclear what is going to occur to ladies who qualify under one of many exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs will probably be empowered to resolve which women qualify and that these abortions shall be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to prove qualification might show tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into law, the measure is one in every of no less than three anti-abortion payments sent this yr to Stitt.

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

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