Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into regulation the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the primary within the nation to successfully finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers permitted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits somewhat than legal prosecution, just like a Texas law that was passed last yr. The legislation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they may cease performing the process as soon as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd signal each piece of pro-life laws that came across 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 the whole lot we will to guard that child’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I believe and that's what the majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority might further prohibit the practice, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impression will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It should even have severe ripple effects, particularly for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in large numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect in September.”

The payments 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 suggests justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma law are to save lots of the life of a pregnant girl 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 “dead unborn youngster attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The legislation additionally does not apply to the usage of morning-after pills reminiscent of Plan B or any type of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s 4 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 anticipated to stop providing services, it is unclear what is going to occur to women who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors will be empowered to determine which ladies qualify and that these abortions will probably be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to prove qualification might show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is one of not less than three anti-abortion payments despatched this 12 months to Stitt.

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

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