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 approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits reasonably than criminal prosecution, much like a Texas law that was passed final 12 months. The legislation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they'll stop performing the process as soon as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal every piece of pro-life legislation that got here throughout my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise at present,” the first-term Republican said in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we now have a accountability as human beings to do every part we can to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mother. That's what I consider and that's what the majority of Oklahomans believe.”

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

“The affect shall be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It will even have extreme ripple results, especially 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 bills are a 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 high court docket that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

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

The invoice particularly authorizes docs to take away a “lifeless unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The regulation also doesn't apply to the use of morning-after drugs such as Plan B or any kind of contraception.

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

With the state’s two remaining abortion clinics anticipated to stop providing services, it is unclear what will occur to ladies who qualify beneath one of the exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors might be empowered to decide which girls qualify and that these abortions will be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification may prove difficult and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is considered one of at the very least three anti-abortion bills despatched this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to remain in place that allows personal citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady receive 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 briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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