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 within the nation to successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers authorised the ban enforced by civil lawsuits quite than prison prosecution, just like a Texas legislation that was handed last 12 months. The legislation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they may stop performing the process as soon as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal each piece of pro-life legislation that came throughout my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise in the present day,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we now have a responsibility as human beings to do every thing we will to protect that child’s life and the life of the mother. That's what I believe and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion providers throughout the country have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority may further limit the apply, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact shall be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll also have severe ripple results, especially 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 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 courtroom that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma law are to avoid wasting the life of a pregnant lady or if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes docs to remove a “useless unborn little one caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a probably life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The legislation also doesn't apply to the use of morning-after drugs reminiscent of Plan B or any type 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 expected to stop offering services, it's unclear what is going to happen to girls who qualify below one of the exceptions. The regulation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs will likely be empowered to determine which girls qualify and that these abortions will be carried out in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification could prove difficult and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into regulation, the measure is certainly one of not less than three anti-abortion bills sent this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to stay in place that enables private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady receive an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

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 prison. That bill contains no exceptions for rape or incest.