Courts see reason in Oklahoma

The Oklahoma County District Court called a 2009 law passed by legislature, in which a woman who received an abortion would have been required to write personal details about her choice to have an abortion, her relationships, and her financial situation on a public website, unconstitutional.

However, it was not because it was an invasion of privacy. Instead, the bill simply addressed too many topics, violating Oklahoma’s “single-subject” rule.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, the organization that challenged the law, filed the charge in September, and received this decision February 19.

One of the co-plaintiffs described the law as “like undressing women in public, exposing their most personal issues on the Internet.”

The law, besides creating the new Web site for abortion-related issues, redefined abortion terms, banned sex-selective abortion, and created new abortion reporting requirements. Doctors would have had to file information on a woman’s age, marital status, education level, number of previous pregnancies, type of abortion, and the mother’s relationship to the father. Doctors who did not obey risked loss of their medical licenses or criminal charges.

The law went into effect in November 2009, and the Web site would have launched in March.

Other statistics:

Only 3 doctors in the state of Oklahoma know how to perform abortions

The Web site in question would have cost taxpayers over $250,000 each year

Oklahoma has the sixth highest teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. (I wonder why…)

Laws like the this one from Oklahoma, which deliberately attack a woman’s right to privacy when making reproductive choices, are not just unconstitutional, they’re an outrage.

Please help us make sure we never have to fight for our rights in Minnesota! Join us on Pro-choice Rally day, March 4^th at the Capitol!