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 in the nation to successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers accredited the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than prison prosecution, similar to a Texas legislation that was handed final year. The legislation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they may cease performing the procedure as quickly because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd signal every piece of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise right now,” the first-term Republican said in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when now we have a duty as human beings to do every part we will to protect that child’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That is what I consider and that's what the majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion suppliers across the nation have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority may additional restrict the practice, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It will even have severe ripple results, especially for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in large 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 high courtroom that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions in the Oklahoma law are to save the lifetime of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The invoice specifically authorizes doctors to remove a “dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The legislation additionally does not apply to the use of morning-after tablets akin to Plan B or any kind of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four 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 providers, it's unclear what's going to occur to ladies who qualify below one of the exceptions. The law’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will be empowered to resolve which ladies qualify and that these abortions will likely be carried out in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification may prove troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one in all a minimum of three anti-abortion payments despatched this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to stay in place that enables private 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, though it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

The third Oklahoma invoice is to take effect this summer season 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.