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 in the nation to successfully end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than felony prosecution, much like a Texas legislation 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 stated they will stop performing the procedure as quickly because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign each piece of pro-life legislation that got here throughout my desk and I am proud to keep that promise immediately,” the first-term Republican said in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when now we have a accountability as human beings to do every little thing we can to protect that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That's what I consider and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers throughout the nation have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority would possibly additional restrict the apply, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impression can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It's going to even have extreme ripple effects, especially for Texas sufferers who had been traveling to Oklahoma in large numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect in September.”

The bills are a part of an aggressive push in Republican-led states to reduce abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma legislation are to avoid wasting the lifetime of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

The invoice specifically authorizes medical doctors to take away a “lifeless unborn child brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The regulation also doesn't apply to using morning-after pills akin to Plan B or any sort 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 services, it's unclear what is going to occur to ladies who qualify under one of many exceptions. The regulation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors might be empowered to determine which girls qualify and that these abortions can be carried out in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification may prove troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is certainly one of a minimum of three anti-abortion payments sent this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to stay in place that permits non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman get hold of an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

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