Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into law the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the primary in the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorised the ban enforced by civil lawsuits relatively than prison prosecution, just like a Texas regulation that was passed final yr. The legislation takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they are going to cease performing the procedure as soon because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal every bit of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise as we speak,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the second life begins at conception is when we now have a accountability as human beings to do all the things we can to guard that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That's what I consider and that's what the majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the country have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority would possibly further restrict the follow, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It would also have extreme ripple effects, especially for Texas sufferers who had been touring to Oklahoma in giant 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 high court that means justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion practically 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 pregnancy is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The bill particularly authorizes docs to remove a “dead unborn little one attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The legislation also doesn't apply to the usage of morning-after drugs similar to Plan B or any sort of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four 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 offering companies, it's unclear what's going to occur to women who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The law’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors will likely be empowered to resolve which women qualify and that those abortions might be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to prove qualification may prove tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

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

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to remain in place that enables non-public citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady get hold of an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

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