Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into law the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the first within the nation to successfully finish availability of the process.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits relatively than prison prosecution, just like a Texas law that was handed final yr. The regulation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they will stop performing the process as soon as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal each piece of pro-life laws that got here throughout my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise at this time,” the first-term Republican said in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have now a accountability as human beings to do all the pieces we are able to to protect that child’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I consider and that's what the vast majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion providers throughout the country have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority might further limit the practice, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect will probably be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It's going to also have severe ripple effects, especially for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in massive 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 high courtroom that implies justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

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

The invoice particularly authorizes docs to take away a “lifeless unborn child attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The regulation also does not apply to the usage of morning-after pills akin to Plan B or any sort of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four 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 stop providing services, it is unclear what is going to occur to girls who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will be empowered to decide which ladies qualify and that these abortions shall be carried out in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification might prove troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one of at the least three anti-abortion bills despatched this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to stay in place that enables personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a woman acquire an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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