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 first in the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers permitted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits slightly than legal prosecution, just like a Texas legislation that was handed final yr. The regulation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have stated they'll stop performing the process as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal every piece of pro-life laws that got here throughout my desk and I am proud to keep that promise as we speak,” the first-term Republican stated in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we now have a accountability as human beings to do every little thing we can to protect that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That is what I consider and that's what the majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion suppliers across the nation have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority might further limit the apply, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll even have severe ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in large numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect 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 excessive courtroom that suggests justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma regulation are to save lots of the life of a pregnant lady or if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The invoice specifically authorizes doctors to take away a “lifeless unborn baby attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The regulation also does not apply to using morning-after drugs comparable 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 stop providing 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 will probably be carried out in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to prove qualification might prove difficult and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into law, the measure is one in every of at least three anti-abortion payments sent this year to Stitt.

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

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