Oklahoma governor indicators 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 end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accredited the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than prison prosecution, similar to a Texas law that was handed last yr. The legislation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they may stop performing the procedure as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal every piece of pro-life legislation that came throughout my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise right now,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have a duty as human beings to do everything we are able to to guard that child’s life and the life of the mom. That is what I believe and that's what the vast majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority might further prohibit the practice, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impression might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It would even have extreme ripple results, particularly 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 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 docket that suggests justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma legislation 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 legislation enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes doctors to take away a “useless unborn baby attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The regulation also does not apply to using morning-after pills similar to 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 cease offering companies, it's unclear what is going to occur to women who qualify below one of the exceptions. The law’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors might be empowered to decide which women qualify and that these abortions shall be carried out in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification may prove tough and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one among a minimum of three anti-abortion payments despatched this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to stay in place that allows personal residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a girl receive an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy 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 season and would make it a felony to carry out an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That invoice contains no exceptions for rape or incest.