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 in the nation to successfully finish availability of the process.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits moderately than legal prosecution, similar to a Texas law that was handed final yr. The legislation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they'll stop performing the process as soon because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign each piece of pro-life laws that got here throughout my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise at present,” the first-term Republican said in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we've a responsibility as human beings to do all the things we can to protect that child’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I consider and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans consider.”

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

“The impression shall be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It would even have extreme ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The payments are part of an aggressive push in Republican-led states to cut back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s high court docket that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

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

The bill specifically authorizes medical doctors to take away a “dead unborn baby brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The legislation additionally doesn't apply to the usage of morning-after capsules similar to 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 expected to cease offering providers, it's unclear what will occur to women who qualify below one of many exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors might be empowered to determine which women qualify and that these abortions will likely be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification might prove tough and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into regulation, the measure is one in every of not less than three anti-abortion bills sent this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to remain in place that permits private citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman receive an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been temporarily 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 perform an abortion, punishable by as much as 10 years in prison. That bill contains no exceptions for rape or incest.