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 process.

State lawmakers permitted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than felony prosecution, just like a Texas regulation that was handed final yr. The law takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have stated they may cease performing the procedure as soon because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd sign every bit of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise right this moment,” the first-term Republican stated in an announcement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we have a accountability as human beings to do all the pieces we can to protect that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That is what I consider and that is what the majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority would possibly further restrict the follow, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can also have severe 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 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 implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma legislation are to save lots of the lifetime of a pregnant woman or if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

The invoice particularly authorizes docs to take away a “dead unborn baby brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic being pregnant, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The law additionally does not apply to the usage of morning-after drugs akin to Plan B or any sort of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s 4 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 providers, it's unclear what will happen to women who qualify underneath one of the exceptions. The regulation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors will be empowered to decide which girls qualify and that those abortions might be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification might show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one among at the least three anti-abortion bills sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to remain in place that permits non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady acquire 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 quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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