Oklahoma governor signs into law strictest abortion ban in the U.S

By Gabriella Borter

(Reuters) -Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into legislation the strictest abortion ban in the United States, a single that prohibits abortions from fertilization and will allow private citizens to sue these who assistance females terminate their pregnancies.

“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would indicator just about every piece of pro-life legislation that came throughout my desk and I am proud to keep that assure currently,” Stitt said in a assertion.

The Republican-backed legislation, which normally takes outcome right away, makes exceptions only in cases of health care unexpected emergency, rape or incest.

Oklahoma is among the country’s Republican-led states speeding to move anti-abortion rules this 12 months, anticipating that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 situation that set up the constitutional appropriate to abortion.

The Heart for Reproductive Rights, a world wide advocacy group based in New York, reported it would “imminently file a problem to the ban and search for to block it in court.”

“Oklahoma is now the only state in the United States to correctly outlaw abortion while Roe v. Wade continue to stands,” the heart claimed in a assertion.

A draft Supreme Court belief leaked on Might 2 showed the court’s conservative the vast majority intends to overhaul federal abortion legal rights and send the situation of legalization back to specific states.

Oklahoma’s 4 abortion clinics have currently stopped offering abortion companies in anticipation of the ban.

Before this month, Oklahoma enacted an additional bill that banned abortions right after 6 weeks of pregnancy, as opposed to fertilization. Like the newest measure, it depends on civil lawsuits for enforcement.

The enforcement provision in both charges was modeled following Texas laws that took result in September and stopped clinics from undertaking virtually all abortions in that point out.

Just before the passage of the Oklahoma legal guidelines, it had turn out to be a desired destination for Texas gals trying to get abortions after 6 weeks. The limitations in Oklahoma have now expanded a region of the region where there is little to no legal abortion accessibility, forcing individuals to vacation to states these as Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado to end their pregnancies.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter and Daniel Trotta Editing by Sandra Maler and Tom Hogue)