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 first within the nation to effectively finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution, similar to a Texas regulation that was handed final 12 months. The regulation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they may cease performing the process as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal every bit of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise today,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have a accountability as human beings to do all the things we can to protect that child’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I believe and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the nation have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority may additional restrict the follow, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence will probably be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It's going to also have extreme ripple effects, particularly for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in large numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The payments 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 means justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma legislation are to save the life of a pregnant girl or if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

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

The law additionally doesn't apply to the use of morning-after drugs equivalent to 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 anticipated to cease offering companies, it's unclear what's going to happen to girls who qualify beneath one of the exceptions. The law’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs shall be empowered to resolve which women qualify and that these abortions will be carried out in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification may prove tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into legislation, the measure is considered one of at least three anti-abortion bills sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to stay in place that enables personal residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a girl obtain 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 Courtroom

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