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 effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits moderately than felony prosecution, similar to a Texas legislation that was handed final yr. The law takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they will stop performing the procedure as soon as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal every piece of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise immediately,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've a duty as human beings to do every little thing we are able to to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mom. That's what I believe and that is what the vast majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion suppliers across the nation have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority would possibly further prohibit the apply, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact will likely be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It will also have extreme ripple effects, especially 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 cut back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive courtroom that suggests justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma regulation are to save lots of the life of a pregnant girl or if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

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

The legislation also does not apply to the usage of morning-after drugs akin 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 stop providing services, it's unclear what's going to happen to ladies who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs can be empowered to determine which ladies qualify and that those abortions can be carried out in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to prove qualification might prove troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is considered one of no less than three anti-abortion bills sent this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to remain in place that enables personal residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a girl 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 impact this summer time and would make it a felony to carry out an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That bill comprises no exceptions for rape or incest.