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 in the nation to successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits relatively than prison prosecution, just like a Texas legislation that was handed final yr. The law takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have mentioned they'll cease performing the process as soon as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign every piece of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise at present,” the first-term Republican stated in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've got a accountability as human beings to do everything we are able to to guard that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That is what I consider and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans believe.”

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

“The affect will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It's going to also have extreme ripple results, particularly for Texas sufferers who had been traveling to Oklahoma in massive 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 reduce abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s high court that implies justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

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

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

The legislation also does not apply to using morning-after drugs corresponding to Plan B or any kind 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 stop offering providers, it is unclear what is going to occur to women who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The regulation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will be empowered to decide which girls qualify and that these abortions will probably be carried out in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification may show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into law, the measure is certainly one of a minimum of three anti-abortion bills sent this yr 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 non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady get hold of an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to repeat 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 and would make it a felony to carry out an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That bill contains no exceptions for rape or incest.