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 within the nation to successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than criminal prosecution, similar to a Texas legislation that was passed last yr. The legislation takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they may cease performing the procedure as quickly as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign every bit of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise at the moment,” the first-term Republican stated in a press release. “From the second life begins at conception is when we now have a accountability as human beings to do all the things we are able to to protect that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That's what I consider and that is what the vast majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

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

“The impression will probably be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It would also have severe ripple effects, especially for Texas sufferers who had been traveling to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The payments are a 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 excessive court docket that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions in the Oklahoma legislation are to save the life of a pregnant lady or if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

The invoice particularly authorizes docs to remove a “dead unborn youngster attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic being pregnant, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The law additionally does not apply to the usage of morning-after drugs such as Plan B or any type of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s 4 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 providing services, it is unclear what is going to happen to girls who qualify under one of many exceptions. The legislation’s creator, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors might be empowered to decide which girls qualify and that those abortions will be carried out in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification might prove difficult and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into law, the measure is one in every of not less than three anti-abortion bills despatched this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to remain in place that allows private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman acquire an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to copy 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 bill is to take impact this summer time and would make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by as much as 10 years in jail. That bill accommodates no exceptions for rape or incest.