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 in the nation to effectively finish availability of the process.

State lawmakers accredited the ban enforced by civil lawsuits slightly than legal prosecution, much like a Texas regulation that was passed final year. The regulation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have stated they are going to cease performing the process as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal every piece of pro-life laws that came across my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise as we speak,” the first-term Republican said in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've got a responsibility as human beings to do everything we can to guard that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That is what I consider and that's what the majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion providers throughout the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority may additional prohibit the practice, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It should also have extreme ripple effects, particularly for Texas sufferers who had been touring to Oklahoma in massive 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 scale back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s high courtroom that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma law are to save lots of the lifetime of a pregnant lady or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

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

The regulation additionally doesn't apply to the use of morning-after tablets corresponding to 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 is going to happen to ladies who qualify below one of many exceptions. The regulation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will probably be empowered to determine which women qualify and that those abortions can be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification could prove difficult and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into law, the measure is one in every of at the very least three anti-abortion bills sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation 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 suppliers or anybody who helps a woman obtain 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

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