Oklahoma’s Governor Kevin Stitt Wednesday signed the United States’ strictest abortion ban into law. The ban, HB 4327 makes Oklahoma the first state to ban abortion from fertilization until birth. Under the law, abortion is prohibited at “any stage of pregnancy.” The law includes an exception for medical emergencies and rape or incest. However, rape and incest exceptions require a police report. Reacting to the news, the ACLU wrote, “[t]he consequences of being denied essential abortion care are devastating. No one should be forced to carry a pregnancy against their will.”

The state may bring civil action against anyone who performs an abortion or knowingly aids or abets an abortion, “including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise.” According to the ACLU, “[t]his ban deputizes private citizens to act as bounty hunters and sue friends, family, and anyone else assisting someone in getting an abortion.”

Governor Stitt said in a statement that he “promised Oklahomans that as governor [he] would sign every piece of pro-life legislation that came across [his] desk and [he] am proud to keep that promise today.”