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 procedure.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits moderately than felony prosecution, much like a Texas legislation that was handed final yr. The regulation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have stated they are going to stop performing the process as soon because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal every bit of pro-life legislation that came throughout my desk and I am proud to keep that promise at this time,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've a responsibility as human beings to do the whole lot we are able to to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mom. That is what I imagine and that is what the vast majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

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

“The impression will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can also have extreme ripple results, especially for Texas sufferers who had been touring to Oklahoma in giant 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 courtroom that means justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

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

The bill specifically authorizes doctors to take away a “dead unborn little one brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The regulation also does not apply to the usage of morning-after tablets corresponding to Plan B or any sort 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 offering companies, it is unclear what's going to occur to women who qualify under one of many exceptions. The regulation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors might be empowered to determine which women qualify and that those abortions will likely be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification may show troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into law, the measure is one in all no less than three anti-abortion bills sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to stay in place that allows non-public citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a woman get hold of an abortion. Different 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 bill is to take impact this summer time 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.