By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
OKLAHOMA CITY, August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Oklahoma pro-life law that requires abortion doctors to tell a woman she has a right to a free ultrasound exam and an explanation of the development of her unborn child, has been struck down by a district court judge.
Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson ruled that the 2008 law, which included a number of pro-life initiatives and expanded on anti-abortion legislation passed in 2006, violated a state constitutional provision that requires laws to address only one subject.
The notable pro-life measures in the legislation include the creation of the Freedom of Conscience Act, which protects the rights of healthcare providers to refuse to take part in the destruction of human life; ensuring the chemical abortion pill, RU 486, is used in accordance with FDA guidelines; ensuring the mother's consent to abort is not coerced and truly voluntary; providing a woman with an ultrasound of her unborn child which she can view prior to undergoing the abortion; and cultivating respect for disabled children by banning the wrongful-life lawsuits that claim a baby would have been better off aborted.
A Tulsa abortion mill run by Nova Health Systems, represented by the New York-based pro-abortion law firm Center for Reproductive Rights, filed a lawsuit charging that the law not only violated the state Constitution's “single-subject” rule but also infringed on a woman's right to privacy, violated her dignity and endangered her health.
Director of state legislation for the US National Right to Life Committee, Mary Spaulding Balch, said the judge granted the injunction against the legislation based on a “procedural issue” and not because of the pro-life nature of the law.
“The court's ruling is by no means a condemnation of the commonsense protections provided for in the legislation,” Balch said in a statement yesterday. “The court's decision was based solely on a procedural issue and not the substantive matters addressed in the bill.”
“When all is said and done and the dust has settled from today's ruling we fully expect that each of these laws will be given full effect in Oklahoma,” Balch said.
Senator Todd Lamb, R-Edmond, and State Representative Pam Peterson, who introduced the original legislation, said they are considering a request to the attorney general to appeal Judge Robertson's ruling.
“This legislation is pro-woman, pro-child and pro-life,” State Rep. Peterson said after the bill was passed in April, 2008. “The more information a woman can have before making this life-altering decision, the better.”
See previous LSN coverage:
Oklahoma House and Senate Overwhelmingly Override Governor's Veto of Pro-Life Bill
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08041704.html