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 effectively end availability of the process.

State lawmakers permitted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits relatively than felony prosecution, much like a Texas law that was handed final yr. The regulation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have mentioned they'll cease performing the procedure as quickly because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign every bit of pro-life laws that got here across my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise immediately,” the first-term Republican said in an announcement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've got a duty as human beings to do every little thing we are able to to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mom. That is what I imagine and that's what the vast majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion suppliers across the nation have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority may further restrict the apply, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impression will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll also have severe ripple results, especially for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in giant 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 scale back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s high courtroom that suggests justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma legislation are to avoid wasting the life of a pregnant girl or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes medical doctors to remove a “dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The law also does not apply to the use of morning-after capsules corresponding to Plan B or any kind 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 anticipated to cease offering services, it is unclear what is going to occur to girls who qualify underneath one of many exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors shall be empowered to decide which women qualify and that these abortions shall be carried out in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to show qualification could prove tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into legislation, the measure is one among at the very least three anti-abortion bills sent this 12 months 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 allows personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a girl receive an abortion. Different 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 Courtroom

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