Oklahoma governor signs 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 permitted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than felony prosecution, much like a Texas law that was handed last year. The law takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they'll stop performing the procedure as soon because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd signal every bit of pro-life legislation that came across my desk and I am proud to keep that promise right now,” the first-term Republican stated in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we've got a responsibility as human beings to do every little thing we will to guard that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I believe and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion providers throughout the nation 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 impression can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It should also have severe ripple effects, particularly for Texas sufferers who had been touring to Oklahoma in large numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect in September.”

The payments are part of an aggressive push in Republican-led states to cut back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive courtroom that suggests justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

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

The bill particularly authorizes doctors to remove a “dead unborn little one caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The regulation also doesn't apply to the usage of morning-after pills such as Plan B or any sort of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s 4 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 anticipated to cease offering services, it is unclear what is going to happen to girls who qualify beneath one of the exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors will probably be empowered to decide which women qualify and that those abortions will be carried out in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to prove qualification may prove difficult and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one in every of at least three anti-abortion bills despatched this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to remain in place that permits private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady get hold of an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket

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