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 finish availability of the process.

State lawmakers accepted the ban enforced by civil lawsuits quite than legal prosecution, similar to a Texas regulation that was passed last year. The legislation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they will stop performing the process as quickly because the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd sign each piece of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I'm proud to maintain that promise at the moment,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a press release. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have now a duty as human beings to do every part we can to guard that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mother. That is what I believe and that's what nearly all of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion providers throughout the nation have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court’s new conservative majority may further restrict the practice, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence might be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll also have severe ripple results, particularly 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 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 excessive court docket that means justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

The one exceptions in the Oklahoma regulation are to save lots of the life of a pregnant lady or if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The bill particularly authorizes medical doctors to take away a “dead unborn little one caused by spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to take away an ectopic pregnancy, a probably life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outdoors the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in being pregnant.

The legislation also doesn't apply to the use of morning-after pills corresponding to Plan B or any kind 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 providers, it is unclear what's going to occur to women who qualify underneath one of the exceptions. The legislation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors can be empowered to determine which girls qualify and that those abortions might be carried out in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that making an attempt to prove qualification may show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into legislation, the measure is one in all no less than three anti-abortion bills sent this 12 months 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 permits personal residents to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a girl get hold of an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, though it has been quickly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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 prison. That invoice comprises no exceptions for rape or incest.