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 finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits moderately than legal prosecution, similar to a Texas legislation that was handed last yr. The legislation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have stated they are going to cease 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 got here across my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise at the moment,” the first-term Republican said in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when now we have a accountability as human beings to do every thing we can to guard that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That is what I believe and that is what the majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion providers throughout the nation have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority might further prohibit the practice, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can also have severe ripple effects, especially for Texas sufferers who had been traveling to Oklahoma in massive numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect 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 court docket that suggests justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

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

The bill particularly authorizes medical doctors to remove a “dead unborn baby caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The regulation also does not apply to using morning-after tablets corresponding to Plan B or any kind of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s 4 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 anticipated to cease providing providers, it is unclear what will happen to women who qualify below one of the exceptions. The law’s creator, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs might be empowered to determine which girls qualify and that those abortions shall be carried out in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying 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 considered one of not less than three anti-abortion bills sent this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to stay in place that permits non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a girl obtain an abortion. Other 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 Courtroom

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