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 primary within the nation to successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers authorised the ban enforced by civil lawsuits relatively than criminal prosecution, just like a Texas regulation that was handed last year. The legislation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have mentioned they may stop performing the procedure as soon because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd sign each piece of pro-life laws that came across my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise at present,” the first-term Republican mentioned in an announcement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've got a accountability as human beings to do every part we will to protect that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That is what I consider and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion suppliers across the nation have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority would possibly further restrict the practice, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It should even have severe ripple effects, particularly for Texas patients who had been touring 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 reduce abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court docket that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

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

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

The legislation also does not apply to the usage of morning-after tablets resembling Plan B or any type 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 cease providing services, it's unclear what is going to happen to ladies who qualify underneath one of many exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs can be empowered to resolve which women qualify and that these abortions will likely be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification might prove tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is one among at the very least three anti-abortion bills sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to stay in place that enables private residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman receive an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to repeat 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 invoice is to take impact this summer 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.