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 authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits reasonably than legal prosecution, much like a Texas regulation that was handed final yr. The law takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have mentioned they may stop performing the process as quickly because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal every bit of pro-life laws that came across my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise at the moment,” the first-term Republican said in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we've got a accountability as human beings to do everything we will 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 consider.”

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

“The influence can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It will even have extreme ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in large 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 scale 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 determination that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma law are to avoid wasting the life of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

The invoice specifically authorizes medical doctors to take away a “useless unborn child attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The regulation also does not apply to the use of morning-after tablets resembling Plan B or any sort 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 cease offering providers, it's unclear what is going to occur to ladies who qualify below one of many exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors can be empowered to decide which ladies qualify and that those abortions will likely be performed in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to show qualification could show troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into regulation, the measure is considered one of at least three anti-abortion payments sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to stay in place that permits non-public residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a girl receive an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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