Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into regulation the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the primary within the nation to effectively finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits moderately than criminal prosecution, just like a Texas regulation that was handed final yr. The regulation takes impact instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they will stop performing the procedure as soon because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd sign every piece of pro-life legislation that came across my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise immediately,” the first-term Republican stated in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have a duty as human beings to do all the pieces we can to guard that baby’s life and the life of the mother. That's what I consider and that is what the vast majority of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the nation have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority might additional prohibit the observe, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impression will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It's going to also have extreme ripple effects, particularly for Texas sufferers who had been traveling to Oklahoma in giant 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 cut back abortion rights. It comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s excessive court docket that implies justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

The only exceptions in the Oklahoma regulation are to save the lifetime of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The bill particularly authorizes medical doctors to remove a “useless unborn baby attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The legislation additionally does not apply to the usage of morning-after capsules reminiscent of Plan B or any sort 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 offering providers, it's unclear what's going to happen to ladies who qualify under one of the exceptions. The regulation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors can be empowered to resolve which women qualify and that these abortions will likely be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to show qualification might prove tough and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill 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 Courtroom has allowed to remain in place that allows personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a lady receive an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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