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 within the nation to successfully end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accredited the ban enforced by civil lawsuits quite than prison prosecution, just like a Texas law that was handed last year. The legislation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have mentioned they will cease performing the process as soon because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd sign every piece of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise at present,” the first-term Republican mentioned in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have a responsibility as human beings to do all the things we are able to to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mom. That's what I imagine and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the likelihood 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 impression can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It would also have extreme ripple effects, especially for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The bills 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 excessive court that implies justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions in the Oklahoma regulation are to avoid wasting the lifetime of a pregnant girl or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes docs to remove a “useless unborn baby caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The regulation additionally doesn't apply to the usage of morning-after pills akin to Plan B or any kind 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 cease offering services, it's unclear what is going to happen to women who qualify below one of many exceptions. The law’s creator, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors can be empowered to resolve which girls qualify and that those abortions will be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification may prove difficult and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into legislation, the measure is one among a minimum of three anti-abortion bills despatched this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to stay in place that enables private residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady get hold of an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly 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 carry out an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in jail. That invoice contains no exceptions for rape or incest.