Oklahoma governor indicators 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 approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than legal prosecution, similar to a Texas law that was passed final yr. The legislation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they'll cease performing the process as quickly as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal every piece of pro-life legislation that got here throughout my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise today,” the first-term Republican said in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we now have a responsibility as human beings to do every thing we are able to to protect that child’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That's what I believe and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion suppliers across the nation have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority might further restrict the apply, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can also have severe ripple effects, 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 courtroom that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions in the Oklahoma regulation are to save the life of a pregnant woman or if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The invoice particularly authorizes doctors to remove a “lifeless unborn youngster caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The legislation additionally does not apply to the usage of morning-after tablets corresponding to Plan B or any type 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 stop offering services, it is unclear what is going to happen to women who qualify below one of many exceptions. The law’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors might be empowered to decide which ladies qualify and that those abortions might be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification could prove troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is certainly one of at the very least three anti-abortion payments despatched this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to remain in place that enables private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a girl receive an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly 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 perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That invoice incorporates no exceptions for rape or incest.