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 primary within the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits relatively than legal prosecution, much like a Texas regulation that was passed last 12 months. The regulation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have stated they are going to cease performing the process as quickly because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign each piece of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise immediately,” the first-term Republican said in a press release. “From the second life begins at conception is when now we have a accountability as human beings to do every part we will to protect that child’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That is what I imagine and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion suppliers across the country have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority might further restrict the observe, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence will probably be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It's going to even have severe ripple effects, particularly for Texas sufferers who had been traveling to Oklahoma in massive numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect 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 high court that implies justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

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

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

The legislation additionally doesn't apply to the usage of morning-after pills 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 stop offering services, it's unclear what will happen to girls who qualify below one of many exceptions. The regulation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will likely be empowered to determine which girls qualify and that these abortions will probably be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification could prove difficult and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is considered one of at least three anti-abortion payments despatched this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to remain in place that enables non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady acquire an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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