Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into law the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the first within the nation to effectively finish availability of the process.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits relatively than felony prosecution, much like a Texas law that was passed final year. The law takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have mentioned they are going to cease performing the procedure as soon because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign each piece of pro-life laws that got here across my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise as we speak,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we have a responsibility as human beings to do every part we can to protect that child’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That's what I consider and that's what the majority of Oklahomans consider.”

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

“The affect can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said 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 large numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact 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 high court docket that means justices are contemplating 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 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 invoice particularly authorizes docs to remove a “lifeless unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The law additionally doesn't apply to using morning-after pills akin to Plan B or any type 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 anticipated to stop providing providers, it's unclear what's going to occur to girls who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The regulation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors shall be empowered to resolve which women qualify and that these abortions can be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to prove qualification could show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is one in all not less than three anti-abortion bills despatched this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to remain in place that permits personal residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady receive an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket

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