On Wednesday, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed into law HB 4327, described as “the nation’s strictest abortion ban.”
BREAKING: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, the Oklahoma governor has passed the toughest anti-abortion ban in the United States into law. It makes Oklahoma the first state to completely end access to the procedure. https://t.co/KjvjjJoUe0 pic.twitter.com/M5s1hFcKS7
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 25, 2022
Similar to Texas’s recent law, the new law has a civil enforcement mechanism instead of criminal prosecution. It provides for civil lawsuits to be brought by private citizens (not the state) against any person who performs an abortion in violation of the act or “aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise.”
This is what the law says It is not allow for suits to be brought “against the woman upon whom an abortion was performed or induced or attempted to be performed or induced in violation of this act, or against a pregnant woman who intends or seeks to abort her
unborn child in violation of this act,” or “ByA person who inseminated a woman for an abortion, whether it was by incest or sexual assault. ” (emphasis mine) In other words, the suit may not be brought against the woman who sought/obtained an abortion nor by a man who illegally impregnated the woman.
The law allows for these exceptions as well:
To save a woman’s life or to report a rape/incest to the police.
The bill specifically authorizes 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.
This law does not cover morning-after pill like Plan B, or other contraceptives.
The following statement was made by Governor Stitt in connection to the signing:
“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….From the moment life begins at conception is when we have a responsibility as human beings to do everything we can to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mother. That is what I believe and that is what the majority of Oklahomans believe.”
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