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 first within the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits relatively than felony prosecution, similar to a Texas legislation that was handed final year. The law takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they will cease performing the procedure as soon because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal every piece of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise in the present day,” the first-term Republican stated in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have a responsibility as human beings to do every little thing we will to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mom. That is what I imagine and that's what the vast majority of Oklahomans believe.”

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

“The influence can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can even have extreme ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The payments are a 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 high court docket that means justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma regulation are to save the lifetime of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The bill particularly authorizes docs to take away a “dead unborn little one brought on 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 the use of morning-after pills such as 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 stop offering providers, it is unclear what's going to occur to girls who qualify below one of many exceptions. The regulation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors will be empowered to determine 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 show tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one among no less than three anti-abortion bills sent this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to remain in place that permits non-public residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a girl 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 quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

The third Oklahoma bill is to take effect this summer and would make it a felony to carry out an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That invoice contains no exceptions for rape or incest.