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 approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits moderately than felony prosecution, much like a Texas regulation that was handed final 12 months. The legislation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they may cease performing the procedure as soon because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd signal every piece of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise today,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've got a duty as human beings to do every part we will to guard that child’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I believe and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority would possibly additional restrict the observe, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It would also have extreme ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in massive 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 cut back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma legislation are to save lots of the life of a pregnant woman or if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The bill particularly authorizes doctors to remove a “lifeless unborn baby attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The law additionally doesn't apply to the use of morning-after tablets corresponding to 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 expected to cease offering services, it's unclear what is going to occur to women who qualify underneath one of many exceptions. The regulation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will be empowered to determine which girls qualify and that those abortions will be performed in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification might prove tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to 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 law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to remain in place that permits personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman get hold of 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 temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

The third Oklahoma bill 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 prison. That invoice comprises no exceptions for rape or incest.