Oklahoma governor indicators 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 first within the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers accredited the ban enforced by civil lawsuits somewhat than criminal prosecution, similar to a Texas legislation that was passed final year. The legislation takes effect instantly upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have mentioned they are going to cease performing the procedure as soon as the bill is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would signal every bit of pro-life legislation that got here across my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise immediately,” the first-term Republican stated in a statement. “From the second life begins at conception is when we have now a responsibility as human beings to do all the things we can to guard that child’s life and the life of the mother. That's what I imagine and that is what the majority of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion suppliers throughout the nation have been bracing for the chance that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s new conservative majority may further restrict the apply, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The affect will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It should also have severe ripple effects, especially 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 bills 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 excessive court that means justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The only exceptions within the Oklahoma law are to avoid wasting the life 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 doctors to remove a “lifeless unborn child brought on 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 additionally doesn't apply to the usage of morning-after capsules equivalent 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 cease providing services, it's unclear what is going to happen to girls who qualify beneath one of many exceptions. The law’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors can be empowered to decide which women qualify and that these abortions will probably be performed in hospitals. However providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification might prove troublesome and even harmful in some circumstances.

Along with the Texas-style bill already signed into regulation, the measure is certainly one of not less than three anti-abortion payments sent this yr to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to stay in place that enables non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a girl get hold of an abortion. Different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been temporarily blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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