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 in the nation to effectively end availability of the process.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits quite than prison prosecution, much like a Texas regulation that was handed last year. The legislation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have stated they will cease performing the procedure as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd signal every bit of pro-life laws that came throughout my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise at present,” the first-term Republican stated in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we now have a responsibility as human beings to do everything we can to protect that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That is what I believe and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans imagine.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the nation have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority might additional restrict the practice, and that has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll also have severe ripple effects, particularly for Texas sufferers who had been touring to Oklahoma in large 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 suggests justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion almost 50 years in the past.

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma regulation are to save the lifetime of a pregnant girl or if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to legislation enforcement.

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

The legislation additionally doesn't apply to the usage of morning-after pills corresponding to Plan B or any kind 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 anticipated to stop offering providers, it's unclear what is going to occur to girls who qualify under one of many exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors shall be empowered to resolve which ladies qualify and that those abortions will likely be carried out in hospitals. But suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to prove qualification could show troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into regulation, the measure is one in every of at least three anti-abortion payments sent this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket has allowed to remain in place that enables non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady get hold of an abortion. Different 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 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 accommodates no exceptions for rape or incest.