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 primary within the nation to successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than felony prosecution, much like a Texas regulation that was handed final yr. The regulation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they will cease performing the procedure as quickly because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal every bit of pro-life laws that got here across my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise at present,” the first-term Republican stated in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we have now a accountability as human beings to do the whole lot we will to guard that child’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That is what I consider and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority may further restrict the practice, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect will probably be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can also have extreme ripple effects, particularly for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in massive numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The bills 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 implies 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 regulation are to avoid wasting the lifetime of a pregnant girl or if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes docs to remove a “useless 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, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The legislation additionally doesn't apply to using morning-after drugs similar to Plan B or any kind 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 providing services, it is unclear what's going to occur to women who qualify underneath one of many exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors might be empowered to determine which girls qualify and that those abortions will probably be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to show qualification may show tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one in every of not less than three anti-abortion payments sent this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to remain in place that allows private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a girl obtain an abortion. Other 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 docket

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