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 successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits quite than criminal prosecution, just like a Texas regulation that was passed last 12 months. The regulation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have stated they may cease performing the procedure as soon because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign each piece of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise at the moment,” the first-term Republican mentioned in an announcement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've a responsibility as human beings to do everything we can to guard that child’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I imagine 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 might further prohibit the apply, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence shall be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can 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 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 that suggests justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

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

The bill particularly authorizes docs to remove a “useless unborn child brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a probably life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The regulation also doesn't apply to the use of morning-after tablets such as 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 expected to stop offering providers, it's unclear what's going to happen to ladies who qualify underneath one of the exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will be empowered to decide which girls qualify and that these abortions will probably be carried out in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification could prove troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

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

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to remain in place that permits personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a girl acquire an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

The third Oklahoma bill is to take effect this summer 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.