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 primary within the nation to successfully finish availability of the procedure.

State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits reasonably than criminal prosecution, similar to a Texas legislation that was passed final year. The regulation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they'll stop performing the procedure as quickly because the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I might sign each piece of pro-life legislation that came across my desk and I am proud to keep that promise at this time,” the first-term Republican mentioned in a statement. “From the moment life begins at conception is when we have a accountability as human beings to do all the things we will to guard that baby’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That's what I consider and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans believe.”

Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority would possibly additional limit the follow, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The impact can be disastrous for Oklahomans,” stated Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It'll also have extreme ripple results, particularly for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in giant numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into impact in September.”

The bills are 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 high court docket that suggests justices are contemplating weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion practically 50 years ago.

The one exceptions in the Oklahoma law are to save the lifetime of a pregnant woman or if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes doctors to remove a “dead unborn child attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants exterior the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The law also doesn't apply to the use of morning-after tablets 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 expected to cease offering providers, it's unclear what will happen to women who qualify below one of many exceptions. The regulation’s author, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says medical doctors can be empowered to resolve which girls qualify and that these abortions will likely be performed in hospitals. But providers and abortion-rights activists warn that trying to prove qualification might show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style invoice already signed into law, the measure is one among not less than three anti-abortion payments sent this 12 months to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to stay in place that enables private citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady acquire an abortion. Other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court

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