Oklahoma governor indicators the nation’s strictest abortion ban

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

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits slightly than criminal prosecution, just like a Texas regulation that was passed last yr. The regulation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they will cease performing the procedure as quickly because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign every bit of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise at present,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have a duty as human beings to do all the pieces we are able to to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mom. That is what I believe and that is what the majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority may additional restrict the practice, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It is going to even have extreme ripple effects, especially for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in large 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 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 resolution that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

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

The bill specifically authorizes docs to take away a “lifeless unborn child attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a doubtlessly 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 capsules reminiscent of Plan B or any type 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 is going to occur to ladies who qualify under one of the exceptions. The law’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors might be empowered to resolve which women qualify and that these abortions will likely be carried out in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification might show difficult 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 bills despatched this yr 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 permits non-public residents to sue abortion providers 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 quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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