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 primary in the nation to effectively finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits reasonably than prison prosecution, much like a Texas regulation that was passed final 12 months. The law takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they may stop performing the procedure as soon because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign each piece of pro-life laws that got here across my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise today,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have a responsibility as human beings to do all the pieces we will to guard that child’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I believe and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers across the nation have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority may further limit the apply, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll also have extreme ripple results, especially 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 payments are a part of an aggressive push in Republican-led states to scale back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court docket that means justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma regulation are to save lots of the lifetime of a pregnant woman or if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The bill particularly authorizes medical doctors to remove a “lifeless unborn little one attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a potentially 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 tablets equivalent to Plan B or any kind 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 stop providing providers, it is unclear what's going to happen to girls who qualify underneath one of the exceptions. The legislation’s creator, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors can be empowered to decide which ladies qualify and that those abortions can be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification could prove difficult and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into regulation, the measure is considered one of at least three anti-abortion bills despatched this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation 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 private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a woman receive an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

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