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 first in the nation to successfully end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits reasonably than prison prosecution, just like a Texas law that was passed last 12 months. The legislation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they may cease performing the procedure as soon as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign each piece of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise at this time,” the first-term Republican stated in a press release. “From the second life begins at conception is when we've a accountability as human beings to do all the things we can to guard that child’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That's what I imagine and that's what the vast majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers throughout the nation have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority might further prohibit the apply, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It will also have severe ripple effects, particularly for Texas sufferers who had been traveling to Oklahoma in massive 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 cut back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

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

The invoice specifically authorizes doctors to remove a “dead unborn baby attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic being pregnant, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The law additionally doesn't apply to the use of morning-after tablets comparable to Plan B or any type 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 providers, it is unclear what will happen to ladies who qualify below one of the exceptions. The law’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will probably be empowered to determine which ladies qualify and that these abortions can be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification could prove tough and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one in all a minimum of three anti-abortion payments despatched this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to stay in place that permits personal residents 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, though it has been quickly 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 perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That bill contains no exceptions for rape or incest.