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 effectively finish availability of the process.

State lawmakers accredited the ban enforced by civil lawsuits reasonably than felony prosecution, just like a Texas legislation that was handed last 12 months. The law takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they'll stop performing the procedure as soon as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign every piece of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I am proud to keep that promise right this moment,” the first-term Republican stated in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have a accountability as human beings to do the whole lot we can to guard that child’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I consider and that is what the vast majority of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion providers throughout the nation have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority would possibly additional limit the follow, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It should even have extreme ripple effects, particularly for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in massive 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 scale back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive courtroom that implies justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma law 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 regulation enforcement.

The invoice specifically authorizes medical doctors to take away a “lifeless unborn little one 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 outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The regulation also does not apply to using morning-after tablets such as Plan B or any sort of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s 4 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 expected to cease providing providers, it's unclear what will happen to women who qualify below one of the exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors can be empowered to decide which women qualify and that these abortions will probably be performed in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification may prove troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is certainly one of a minimum of three anti-abortion bills despatched this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s legislation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to remain in place that permits private residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a woman acquire an abortion. Different 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 bill is to take effect this summer time and would make it a felony to carry out an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in jail. That bill contains no exceptions for rape or incest.