Oklahoma governor indicators 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 first within the nation to successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers accredited the ban enforced by civil lawsuits somewhat than criminal prosecution, similar to a Texas legislation that was passed last year. The law takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they are going to cease performing the procedure as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal every piece of pro-life laws that got here throughout my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise immediately,” the first-term Republican stated in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have now a accountability as human beings to do every part we can to protect that child’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I consider and that is what the majority of Oklahomans believe.”

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

“The affect might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It's going to even have severe ripple effects, especially 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 bills are 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 implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions in the Oklahoma law 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 specifically authorizes doctors to remove a “dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The legislation additionally doesn't apply to the use of morning-after capsules such as Plan B or any kind of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s four 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 companies, it is unclear what's going to happen to women who qualify below one of the exceptions. The law’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors can be empowered to resolve which girls qualify and that those abortions can be carried out in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to show qualification may prove troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into legislation, the measure is one in all not less than three anti-abortion payments sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to stay in place that allows non-public citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anyone who helps a girl obtain an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to repeat 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 invoice is to take impact this summer season and would make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That bill contains no exceptions for rape or incest.