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 primary within the nation to effectively end availability of the process.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits somewhat than felony prosecution, much like a Texas law that was handed final yr. The regulation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they'll stop performing the process as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign each piece of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise immediately,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we now have a accountability as human beings to do all the pieces we can to protect that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That is what I believe and that's what the vast majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority may additional restrict the follow, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence will likely 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 touring to Oklahoma in large 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 excessive court docket that suggests justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

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

The invoice specifically authorizes docs to remove a “dead unborn child brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The regulation also doesn't apply to using morning-after tablets 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 stop providing companies, it's unclear what will happen to ladies who qualify underneath one of many exceptions. The regulation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors will likely be empowered to determine which ladies qualify and that these abortions might be carried out in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to prove qualification might show difficult and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into law, the measure is one among at least three anti-abortion bills sent this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation 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 providers or anyone who helps a girl acquire an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket

The third Oklahoma bill is to take effect this summer season and would make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by as much as 10 years in prison. That invoice contains no exceptions for rape or incest.