Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into legislation the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the first in the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers authorised the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than prison prosecution, much like a Texas law that was passed final year. The legislation takes effect immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they'll cease performing the procedure as quickly as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign every piece of pro-life laws that got here across my desk and I'm proud to keep that promise today,” the first-term Republican said in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we've got a accountability as human beings to do the whole lot we will to guard that child’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That's what I consider and that is what the vast majority of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority would possibly further limit the apply, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact will likely be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It's going to also have severe ripple effects, particularly for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in massive numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The payments are a 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 high courtroom that means justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

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

The invoice particularly authorizes medical doctors to remove a “lifeless unborn little one attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic being pregnant, a potentially life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The regulation also doesn't apply to the use of morning-after drugs such as Plan B or any type 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 expected to stop offering companies, it's unclear what will happen to girls who qualify under one of the exceptions. The regulation’s creator, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says docs will likely be empowered to determine which girls qualify and that those abortions will probably be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to prove qualification might prove tough and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style invoice already signed into regulation, the measure is one of a minimum of three anti-abortion payments sent 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 allows personal citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady acquire an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket

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