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 in the nation to successfully end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits quite than felony prosecution, much like a Texas law that was passed last 12 months. The regulation takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they are going to cease performing the procedure as soon because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd signal every piece of pro-life laws that got here throughout my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise in the present day,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we now have a duty as human beings to do every part we are able to to guard that baby’s life and the life of the mother. That's what I consider and that's what the majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority might further limit the observe, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect shall be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll even have severe ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in giant 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 scale back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive courtroom that suggests justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

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

The invoice particularly authorizes docs to take away a “useless unborn baby brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, 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 regulation additionally doesn't apply to the usage of morning-after capsules such as Plan B or any kind of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four 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 occur to girls who qualify under one of many exceptions. The law’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will likely be empowered to resolve which girls qualify and that these abortions might be carried out in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to prove qualification could show difficult and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into regulation, the measure is one among no less than three anti-abortion payments sent this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to stay in place that enables non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman obtain 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 Courtroom

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 prison. That bill contains no exceptions for rape or incest.