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 in the nation to effectively finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits somewhat than felony prosecution, just like a Texas regulation that was handed last 12 months. The law takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they may stop performing the procedure as soon because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign each piece of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise today,” the first-term Republican said in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when now we have a duty as human beings to do the whole lot we will to protect that child’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I imagine and that is what the vast majority of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the nation have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority may additional restrict the observe, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

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

The bills are a 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 considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma legislation are to save lots of the lifetime of a pregnant girl 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 “lifeless unborn youngster brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The regulation also doesn't apply to using morning-after drugs resembling Plan B or any kind 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 anticipated to stop offering providers, it's unclear what is going to occur to women who qualify underneath one of the exceptions. The law’s creator, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs will probably be empowered to determine which women qualify and that these abortions might be performed in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to show qualification might show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into law, the measure is one of at the very least three anti-abortion bills sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to stay in place that enables private residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady receive an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

The third Oklahoma invoice is to take impact this summer 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.