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 within the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorised the ban enforced by civil lawsuits slightly than criminal prosecution, much like a Texas law that was handed final yr. The legislation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have stated they may stop performing the process as quickly as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign every bit of pro-life legislation that got here throughout my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise at present,” the first-term Republican said in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have now a accountability as human beings to do everything we can to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mother. That's what I imagine and that is what the majority of Oklahomans consider.”

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

“The affect might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll also have severe ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in massive numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect in September.”

The bills 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 courtroom that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma regulation are to avoid wasting the life of a pregnant lady or if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The bill particularly authorizes medical doctors to take away a “useless unborn child brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The law additionally does not apply to the use of morning-after capsules equivalent to Plan B or any sort of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s 4 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 stop offering companies, it's unclear what is going to occur to ladies who qualify under one of many exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors might be empowered to determine which women qualify and that those abortions shall be performed in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to prove qualification may prove difficult and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one among no less than three anti-abortion bills sent this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation 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 girl get hold of 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 Courtroom

The third Oklahoma invoice is to take impact this summer and would make it a felony to carry out an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That invoice comprises no exceptions for rape or incest.