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 in the nation to effectively finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorized the ban enforced by civil lawsuits quite than felony prosecution, much like a Texas law that was handed final 12 months. The law takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they may stop performing the process as quickly because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd signal each piece of pro-life laws that got here across my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise in the present day,” the first-term Republican said in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we have now a responsibility as human beings to do all the things we can to protect that child’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I imagine and that's what the vast majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority may additional limit the apply, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

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

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma law are to avoid wasting the lifetime of a pregnant girl or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes doctors to take away a “useless unborn youngster brought on by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The regulation also does not apply to the use of morning-after drugs corresponding to Plan B or any sort 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 expected to stop offering companies, it is unclear what is going to happen to ladies who qualify beneath one of the exceptions. The legislation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors can be empowered to resolve which women qualify and that these abortions will likely be carried out in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification may show tough and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into legislation, the measure is one in every of not less than three anti-abortion payments despatched this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s law is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to remain in place that enables private citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a girl acquire an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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