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 in the nation to effectively finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorised the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than criminal prosecution, similar to a Texas regulation that was handed final yr. The law takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have mentioned they are going to stop performing the procedure as soon as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign every bit of pro-life legislation that came across my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise in the present day,” the first-term Republican said in an announcement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've a responsibility as human beings to do every thing we are able to to guard that baby’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I believe and that is what the vast majority of Oklahomans believe.”

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

“The affect might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It's going to even have extreme ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The payments are 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 court docket that suggests justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

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

The bill particularly authorizes medical doctors to take away a “dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The legislation additionally does not apply to the use of morning-after capsules similar to 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 services, it is unclear what's going to occur to ladies who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will likely be empowered to decide which girls qualify and that these abortions shall be carried out in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to show qualification could prove troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into law, the measure is one in every of a minimum of three anti-abortion bills sent this yr to Stitt.

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

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