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TechnoratiOklahoma Sued Over New Abortion Ultrasound Law
An advocacy group is suing over an Oklahoma law that prohibits a woman from getting an abortion unless she first has an ultrasound and the doctor describes to her what the fetus looks like.
In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Oklahoma County District Court, the Center for Reproductive Rights says that the requirement intrudes on privacy, endangers health and assaults dignity.
The law, set to go into effect Nov. 1, would make Oklahoma the fourth state in the nation to require that an ultrasound be performed before a woman can have an abortion and that the ultrasound be made available to the patient for viewing, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a health research organization in Washington, D.C. The other states are Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Backers of the lawsuit say Oklahoma is the only state to require that the ultrasound screen be turned toward the woman during the procedure and that the doctor describe what is on the screen, including various dimensions of the fetus.
Lawmakers overrode Gov. Brad Henry's veto to pass the anti-abortion legislation in April. Henry, a Democrat, said he vetoed the bill because it didn't exempt victims of rape or incest from the ultrasound requirement.
Republican state Sen. Todd Lamb said supporters of the law hope that it will curtail abortions in the state.
"I introduced the bill because I wanted to encourage life in society. In Oklahoma, society is on the side of life," Lamb said.
Lamb said he believes the lawsuit will stand a constitutional test. He disagreed with arguments that it forces a woman to view the ultrasound. The law says women may avert their eyes during the ultrasound.
"This bill provides more information to a mother," he said.
The lawsuit against the state was filed on behalf of Nova Health Systems doing business as Reproductive Services in Tulsa.
One provision of the law prohibits women from collecting damages based on claims that a baby born with defects would have been better off aborted. Abortion rights activists have said they fear the provision could allow doctors to withhold information about abnormalities in the fetus that could lead to complications after birth.
"Anti-choice activists will stop at nothing to prevent a woman from getting an abortion, but trying to manipulate a woman's decisions about her own life and health goes beyond the pale," said Stephanie Toti, staff attorney in the U.S. Legal Program of the Center for Reproductive Rights and lead attorney on the case. "Governments should stop playing doctor and leave medical determinations to physicians and health decisions to individuals."
11 Comments so far
Show AllIt has to be Unconstitutional to force a woman to have an ultrasound . . .
especially before granting her the right to have an abortion!
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
Oklahoma, whose state motto should be changed to 'Don't abort, execute' has long adhered to the (satirical) words of G.K. Chesterton:
"Let all the babies be born. Then let us drown those we do not like." - Babies and Distributism, GK's Weekly, 11/12/1932
Of course abortion is anathema in a Oklahoma where, if the preferred method of execution, lethal injection, is ever held to be unconstitutional, electrocution is permitted, and firing squad if both lethal injection and electrocution are held unconstitutional.
Kill'em any way you can, but respect all life forms from conception.
As Oklahoma gets poorer and poorer, it's ironic that these same sick-minded Republicans will go out of their way to put the lives of more women in danger. How is Oklahoma supposed to grow when the risks of more child deaths will result from this kind of atrocious conservative agenda? I congratulate the governor for being brave enough to veto this piece of shit.
When will society learn to grow up and learn about peace, understanding, and tolerance? Never and this is why the USA will never truly be a Christian nation.
...why, it looks just like Adolph Hitler or George Bush...maybe Charles Manson...
....or DICK Cheney, or Ted Haggard, or James Dobson, or John Hagee, or Sarah Palin!!
Thinking about where our society and our globe may be heading, I should think these politicians would be wanting more women to abort. I need a drink.....
"Governments should stop playing doctor and leave medical determinations to physicians and health decisions to individuals."
With the stolen government of war-mongers, religious fanatics, and kill-all-but-the-unborn and braindead creeps spilling over the whole country and into every aspect of our lives, and the thieving party that stole the government and is making sure it doesn't get taken back, we better get used to it, and more. It's bound to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. No one can stop the Cyborgs!
Another gem of myopic oppressive sexist legislation in the name of "family values" from a backwards, clueless cracker demagogue in Lamb's clothing.
And that's the best thing one can say about it.
I guess by now he's moved onto his legislation to abolish same-sex lavatories in schools to counter the abiding threat of homosexual predation. Now, THAT's a tough one, especially when it was pointed out to him that his plan to substitute single-occupancy outhouses would be vulnerable to attack from even more conservative "family values" opponents as promoting onanism. And even this Lamb doesn't dare suggest fleecing the taxpayers to fund mandatory public-school student colostomy bags.
"I introduced the bill because I wanted to encourage life in society. In Oklahoma, society is on the side of life," Lamb said."
Sorry, you can't be "on the side of life" if you support the death penalty.
Save the unborn so you can execute them later....that's the Oklahoma (or Texas, or Virginia, or Florida, or Missouri) way.
I do not favor abortion, but I don't feel qualified to make a decision for someone else on this.
My feeling is if I make the decision I have to take the responsibility. Making the decision without taking the responsibility doesn't seem right to me.
Right. Since we've boiled this whole issue down to slogans (pro-life, pro-choice)
it's gotten out of hand and it's been trivialized. I am a woman, and I am PRO-LIFE:
really, what human being is against life, for heaven's sake???? But, I am also
PRO-CHOICE, for exactly the reason you state - the woman who is pregnant needs to make the decision (and if she chooses, she can involve the man who impregnated her or her doctor).
I think abortion should be rare, it should not be used as "birth control." But, since we seem to have so many idiots running around today who think sex education should be 'aborted,' and preach abstinence only, or who have not noticed that we have 6.5 billion folks on this planet already and can hardly provide food and water for all of them, we need to retain safe, medically-provided abortion services for all women who need them.
And, we need to tell male legislators that they should butt out! Until pigs fly
(excluing Miss Sarah) or until men bear the children they should have no legal say
regarding women's control of their bodies.
Agree with the two posters above.
Joe