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 end availability of the process.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits relatively than legal prosecution, much like a Texas regulation that was passed final 12 months. The law takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have stated they may stop performing the procedure as quickly as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal every bit of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise right now,” the first-term Republican said in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we now have a accountability as human beings to do all the things we can to guard that baby’s life and the life of the mom. That is what I consider and that's what the majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority would possibly further prohibit the apply, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence shall be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It will even have extreme ripple results, particularly for Texas sufferers who had been traveling to Oklahoma in large 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 reduce abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s high court that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

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

The bill particularly authorizes medical doctors to take away a “lifeless unborn baby attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The law additionally doesn't apply to using morning-after tablets comparable 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 providers, it's unclear what will occur to ladies who qualify underneath one of the exceptions. The law’s creator, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors can be empowered to determine which women qualify and that those abortions shall be performed in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification could show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into law, the measure is one among at the least three anti-abortion bills sent 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 remain in place that permits private residents to sue abortion providers 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 bill is to take effect this summer season and would make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in jail. That invoice incorporates no exceptions for rape or incest.