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 successfully end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits somewhat than legal prosecution, much like a Texas regulation that was passed final yr. The regulation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have stated they may cease performing the process as quickly as the bill 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 keep that promise as we speak,” the first-term Republican said in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we have a duty as human beings to do the whole lot we are able to to guard that child’s life and the life of the mom. That is what I consider and that's what the majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority might additional limit the follow, 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 will even have severe ripple effects, particularly for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect in September.”

The bills are 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 court that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma law are to save lots of the lifetime of a pregnant girl or if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The invoice specifically authorizes doctors to remove a “useless unborn baby brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The legislation additionally doesn't apply to using 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 cease offering companies, it's unclear what is going to happen to women who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The law’s creator, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will likely be empowered to determine which ladies qualify and that those abortions can be carried out in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification might prove troublesome 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 payments sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to remain in place that permits non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady receive an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

The third Oklahoma invoice is to take impact this summer time and would make it a felony to carry out an abortion, punishable by as much as 10 years in jail. That invoice contains no exceptions for rape or incest.