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 first within the nation to effectively finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits moderately than criminal prosecution, just like a Texas legislation that was handed final yr. The legislation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they are going to stop performing the procedure as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd sign each piece of pro-life laws that came across 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've got a accountability as human beings to do every little thing we can to guard that child’s life and the life of the mom. That's what I consider and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans believe.”

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

“The impression will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll even have severe ripple effects, especially for Texas sufferers who had been traveling 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 scale back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court that implies justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

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

The bill specifically authorizes doctors to take away a “lifeless unborn little one caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The legislation also doesn't apply to using morning-after tablets such as Plan B or any type 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's unclear what will happen to women who qualify below one of many exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs might be empowered to resolve which ladies qualify and that these abortions will be performed in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to show qualification could show tough and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into law, the measure is one in every of at the least 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 allows non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman acquire an abortion. Different 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 docket

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