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 first in the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits fairly than criminal prosecution, similar to a Texas law that was handed final 12 months. The regulation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have stated they'll cease performing the process as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might signal every bit of pro-life legislation that came across my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise right this moment,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we have now a responsibility as human beings to do everything we are able to to protect that child’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I consider and that is what the majority of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion suppliers across the nation have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority may further prohibit the observe, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It would also have severe ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in large numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect 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 excessive court that implies justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The one exceptions within the Oklahoma legislation are to avoid wasting the lifetime of a pregnant lady or if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The invoice particularly authorizes docs to take away a “lifeless unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The legislation additionally doesn't apply to the use of morning-after pills corresponding 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 anticipated to stop offering companies, it is unclear what will happen to women who qualify underneath one of the exceptions. The regulation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs will probably be empowered to resolve which girls qualify and that these abortions can be carried out in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to prove qualification might show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is certainly one of at least 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 stay in place that enables private residents to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman receive an abortion. Different 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 Court docket

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