The US state of Oklahoma has become the nation’s first to effectively end abortions.
Governor Kevin Stitt signed the law, which takes effect immediately, and bans all abortions at the point of fertilisation with a few exceptions, including to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
State politicians approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution, similar to a Texas law that was passed last year.
“I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign every piece of pro-life legislation that came across my desk and I am proud to keep that promise today,” Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said in a statement.
Abortion providers across the country have been bracing for the possibility that the US Supreme Court’s new conservative majority might further restrict the practice. That has especially been the case in Oklahoma and Texas.
“The impact will be disastrous for Oklahomans,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the abortion-rights supporting Guttmacher Institute.
“It will also have severe ripple effects, especially for Texas patients who had been traveling to Oklahoma in large numbers after the Texas six-week abortion ban went into effect in September.”
The Center for Reproductive Rights, a global advocacy group based in New York, has said it will challenge the ban in state court.
Abortion providers have said they will stop performing the procedure as soon as the bill is signed.
The bill follows a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s high court that suggests justices are considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v Wade decision that legalised abortion nearly 50 years ago.
The bill authorises doctors to remove a “dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion”, or miscarriage, or to remove an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening emergency that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often in a fallopian tube and early in pregnancy.
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The law also does not apply to the use of morning-after pills such as Plan B or any type of contraception.
Two of Oklahoma’s four 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 services, it is unclear what will happen to women who qualify under one of the exceptions.
The restrictions in Oklahoma have now expanded a region of the country where there is little to no legal abortion access, forcing patients to travel to states such as Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado to end their pregnancies.
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