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 first in the nation to effectively end availability of the process.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits reasonably than felony prosecution, just like a Texas regulation that was handed final yr. The regulation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they may cease performing the process as quickly because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign every bit of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise immediately,” the first-term Republican said in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when now we have a responsibility as human beings to do every part we can to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I believe and that is what the vast majority of Oklahomans consider.”

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

“The affect will probably 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, especially for Texas patients who had been touring 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 high court that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma law are to save the life of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes doctors to take away a “lifeless unborn youngster attributable to 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, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The law additionally doesn't apply to using morning-after capsules such as Plan B or any sort 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 anticipated to stop offering services, it is unclear what's going to occur to women who qualify below one of the exceptions. The law’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will be empowered to determine which women qualify and that these abortions will be carried out in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification might show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is one among not less than three anti-abortion payments sent this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation 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 non-public citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman acquire 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 temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket

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