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 within the nation to successfully end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits slightly than criminal prosecution, just like a Texas law that was handed last yr. The law takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have mentioned they will cease performing the procedure as soon as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd signal every bit of pro-life legislation that came throughout my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise at this time,” the first-term Republican stated in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've got a responsibility as human beings to do all the things we are able to to protect that child’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That is what I believe and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans consider.”

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

“The influence might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll also have severe ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect 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 determination that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

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

The bill specifically authorizes medical doctors to take away a “lifeless unborn baby brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The legislation also does not apply to the usage of morning-after tablets equivalent to Plan B or any kind 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 anticipated to stop offering services, it's unclear what's going to occur to women who qualify underneath one of many exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors shall be empowered to determine which ladies qualify and that these abortions might be carried out in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification could show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into legislation, the measure is one among not less than three anti-abortion bills despatched this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to remain in place that allows personal citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a lady acquire 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 Court

The third Oklahoma invoice is to take effect this summer and would make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That invoice accommodates no exceptions for rape or incest.