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 successfully end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits reasonably than legal prosecution, similar to a Texas regulation that was handed final yr. The law takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they are going to cease performing the procedure as quickly because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd sign each piece of pro-life laws that got here throughout my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise in the present day,” the first-term Republican stated in a press release. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have a responsibility as human beings to do the whole lot we are able to to protect that child’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I consider and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

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

“The impression can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It is going to even have extreme ripple effects, especially for Texas sufferers who had been traveling to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The bills 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 courtroom that implies justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma legislation are to avoid wasting the lifetime of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The invoice specifically authorizes docs to take away a “useless unborn youngster attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The law also does not apply to the usage of morning-after tablets resembling 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 cease offering companies, it is unclear what's going to happen to women who qualify under one of the exceptions. The regulation’s creator, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors might be empowered to decide which women qualify and that these abortions will probably be performed in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification might prove tough and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is one in every of at the least three anti-abortion payments despatched 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 permits personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady obtain an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

The third Oklahoma invoice is to take effect this summer time 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.