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 within the nation to successfully end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorised the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than felony prosecution, much like a Texas legislation that was passed last yr. The legislation takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have stated they may stop performing the process as soon as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal every bit of pro-life legislation that came across my desk and I am proud to keep that promise at this time,” the first-term Republican said in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we now have a duty as human beings to do everything we will to guard that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I imagine and that is what the majority of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority may additional prohibit the practice, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It will even have severe ripple results, particularly 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 payments 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 courtroom that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma regulation are to save the lifetime of a pregnant lady or if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The invoice particularly authorizes medical doctors to remove a “lifeless unborn youngster attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The regulation also doesn't apply to the use of morning-after pills similar to Plan B or any sort of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four 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 stop providing services, it's unclear what is going to happen to women who qualify below one of many exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors will probably be empowered to decide which women qualify and that these abortions will likely be carried out in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to prove qualification may prove tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into regulation, the measure is one in every of at least three anti-abortion payments despatched this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to remain in place that permits non-public residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a girl obtain an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket

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