Oklahoma governor indicators 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 in the nation to successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers permitted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than legal prosecution, similar to a Texas law that was handed final 12 months. The regulation takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they'll stop performing the process as quickly because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign every piece of pro-life laws that came across my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise today,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we've got a duty as human beings to do the whole lot we are able to to guard that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I consider and that is what the vast majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

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

“The impact can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It's going to also have extreme ripple effects, particularly for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

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

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma law are to save the lifetime of a pregnant girl or if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

The bill particularly authorizes doctors to take away a “lifeless unborn youngster caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The law additionally does not apply to using morning-after drugs corresponding to Plan B or any type 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 anticipated to cease offering companies, it's unclear what's going to happen to girls who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The regulation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will likely be empowered to decide which women qualify and that those abortions will be carried out in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification might show tough and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into legislation, the measure is one in every of no less than three anti-abortion payments despatched this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to stay in place that allows private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady acquire an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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