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 successfully end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than felony prosecution, similar to a Texas law that was passed last year. The legislation takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they'll cease performing the procedure as quickly because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal each piece of pro-life laws that got here throughout my desk and I am proud to keep that promise at this time,” the first-term Republican mentioned in an announcement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've got a responsibility as human beings to do every little thing we can to protect that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I consider and that is what the majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

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

“The impression might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It can also have extreme ripple effects, especially for Texas sufferers who had been touring to Oklahoma in massive numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect in September.”

The payments are a 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 excessive courtroom that means justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

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

The bill specifically authorizes medical doctors to take away a “lifeless unborn youngster caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The law also does not apply to using morning-after pills akin to Plan B or any kind 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 girls who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will be empowered to determine which women qualify and that these abortions will be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification might prove troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into legislation, the measure is one in all a minimum of three anti-abortion payments despatched this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to stay in place that permits personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a girl acquire 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 briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

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