Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into regulation the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the first within the nation to effectively end availability of the process.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than felony prosecution, just like a Texas legislation that was handed final yr. The regulation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have stated they may cease performing the process as soon because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal every bit of pro-life laws that got here throughout my desk and I am proud to keep that promise today,” the first-term Republican said in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we have now a accountability as human beings to do every little thing we can to protect that child’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I believe and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the nation have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority would possibly additional prohibit the apply, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect will likely be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It should also have extreme ripple effects, particularly for Texas sufferers who had been touring 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 reduce abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court that suggests justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma law 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 invoice specifically authorizes medical doctors to remove a “useless unborn youngster attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic being pregnant, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The legislation also does not apply to the usage of morning-after tablets equivalent to Plan B or any sort 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 offering companies, it's unclear what is going to occur to women who qualify underneath one of many exceptions. The law’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs will likely be empowered to resolve which girls qualify and that these abortions might be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to show qualification may show difficult and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into legislation, the measure is one in every of at the very least three anti-abortion payments sent this year 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 allows non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a woman get hold of an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been briefly 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 perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in jail. That invoice accommodates no exceptions for rape or incest.