Oklahoma governor signs 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 successfully end availability of the process.

State lawmakers authorised the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than prison prosecution, just like a Texas regulation that was passed final yr. The legislation takes impact immediately upon Stitt’s signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion suppliers have said they will cease performing the process as soon as the invoice is signed.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I'd signal each piece of pro-life legislation that came throughout my desk and I am proud to maintain that promise as we speak,” the first-term Republican mentioned in an announcement. “From the second life begins at conception is when now we have a duty as human beings to do every part we are able to to guard that child’s life and the lifetime of the mom. That is what I consider and that is what nearly all of Oklahomans consider.”

Abortion suppliers across the nation have been bracing for the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s new conservative majority may further prohibit the practice, and that has particularly been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.

“The influence shall be disastrous for Oklahomans,” mentioned Elizabeth Nash, a state coverage analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute. “It should even have severe ripple effects, especially for Texas patients who had been touring to Oklahoma in large 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 cut 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 almost 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 result of rape or incest that has been reported to regulation enforcement.

The bill specifically authorizes doctors to take away a “lifeless unborn child attributable to spontaneous abortion,” or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic being pregnant, a doubtlessly life-threatening emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.

The regulation also doesn't apply to using morning-after capsules equivalent to Plan B or any sort of contraception.

Two of Oklahoma’s 4 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 stop providing providers, it is unclear what will happen to ladies who qualify below one of many exceptions. The regulation’s writer, State Rep. Wendi Stearman, says doctors will likely be empowered to determine which ladies qualify and that those abortions will likely be carried out in hospitals. However suppliers and abortion-rights activists warn that attempting to show qualification may show troublesome and even dangerous in some circumstances.

In addition to the Texas-style bill already signed into regulation, the measure is one of not less than three anti-abortion bills despatched this year to Stitt.

Oklahoma’s regulation is styled after a first-of-its-kind Texas regulation that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has allowed to stay in place that allows private residents to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a woman 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 briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Courtroom

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