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 in the nation to successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers permitted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution, much like a Texas legislation that was handed final 12 months. The law takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have stated they'll cease performing the process as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd signal each piece of pro-life legislation that got here throughout my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise today,” the first-term Republican said in a press release. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have a accountability as human beings to do every part we are able to to guard that baby’s life and the life of the mother. That's what I consider and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion suppliers across the nation have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority may additional prohibit the practice, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

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

The bills are 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 considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions in the Oklahoma regulation are to save the life of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The invoice particularly authorizes docs to remove a “useless unborn youngster brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away 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 being pregnant.

The regulation additionally doesn't apply to the usage of morning-after tablets resembling Plan B or any sort 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 stop offering services, it is unclear what will happen to ladies who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors can be empowered to resolve which ladies qualify and that these abortions might be performed in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification may show difficult and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is one of at least three anti-abortion payments despatched this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to remain in place that allows private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a girl get hold of an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket

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