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 effectively finish availability of the process.

State lawmakers accredited the ban enforced by civil lawsuits somewhat than felony prosecution, much like a Texas regulation that was handed last year. The regulation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they'll stop performing the procedure as soon 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 at the moment,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've a duty as human beings to do every thing we can to guard that child’s life and the life of the mom. That's what I imagine and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority would possibly further prohibit the follow, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can even have extreme ripple effects, especially for Texas sufferers who had been touring to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact 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 high court that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

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

The bill particularly authorizes doctors to remove a “lifeless unborn baby attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The law additionally doesn't apply to the use of morning-after capsules reminiscent of Plan B or any sort of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four 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 stop offering providers, it's unclear what is going to happen to girls who qualify under one of many exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors shall be empowered to determine which ladies qualify and that those abortions might be performed in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification might prove troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one among no less than three anti-abortion payments despatched this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to stay in place that enables personal residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a lady receive an abortion. Other 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 Court docket

The third Oklahoma invoice 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 contains no exceptions for rape or incest.