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 process.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits reasonably than legal prosecution, just like a Texas legislation that was passed last year. The regulation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they may cease performing the procedure as quickly because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd sign each piece of pro-life laws that got here across my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise in the present day,” the first-term Republican stated in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have now a responsibility as human beings to do all the things we will to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mother. That's what I imagine and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion suppliers across the nation have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority may additional prohibit the follow, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence will likely be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can even have extreme ripple effects, particularly for Texas sufferers 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 scale back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court docket that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion almost 50 years ago.

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma law are to save lots of the life of a pregnant lady or if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The invoice particularly authorizes docs to remove a “dead unborn baby 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 outside the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The law additionally doesn't apply to the use of morning-after capsules similar 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 expected to cease offering companies, it is unclear what is going to happen to girls who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The regulation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors can be empowered to resolve which women qualify and that those abortions can be performed in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to prove qualification may prove tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into law, the measure is one in every of not less than three anti-abortion payments sent this 12 months to Stitt.

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

The third Oklahoma invoice is to take impact this summer season and would make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That invoice incorporates no exceptions for rape or incest.