OKLAHOMA CITY (CN) — An Oklahoma state judge allowed three new laws restricting medication abortions and requiring doctor certification to stand Monday but temporarily blocked two abortion laws, including a ban on procedures for pregnancies after about six weeks of pregnancy.
Ruling from the bench, Oklahoma County District Judge Cindy Truong allowed House Bill 1904, Senate Bill 778 and Senate Bill 779 to stand. HB 1904 requires doctors performing abortions to be board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology. Abortion rights groups say that six out of ten abortion doctors in the state will no longer be able to perform abortions under that law.
SB 778 requires medication abortion patients to get an ultrasound at least 72 hours before taking the drugs, and SB 779 imposes more certification requirements on medication abortion drug manufacturers, distributors and providers, including the requiring of admitting privileges at a nearby hospital for abortion doctors.
Planned Parenthood of Arkansas & Eastern Oklahoma, the Tulsa Women’s Reproductive Clinic and three other plaintiffs sued Oklahoma in September to stop the five Republican-sponsored laws from going into effect on Nov. 1. The plaintiffs claim the laws are an unconstitutional violation of due process rights and will have women facing “tremendous or insurmountable barriers” to access care.
Judge Truong did issue a temporary injunction Monday blocking HB 1102, which the plaintiffs claim is an effective “total ban” on abortions as it declares that physicians who perform them are engaging in “unprofessional conduct” and face a suspension of their medical license for at least one year. Truong also blocked HB 2441, another near-total ban on abortion that bans the procedure after there is a “detectable fetal heartbeat.” Embryonic cardiac activity can be detected as early as six weeks of pregnancy, which is often before many women realize they are pregnant. The judge ruled both laws are unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade.
Republican Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment after office hours Monday evening.
The plaintiffs are represented by the nonprofit Center for Reproductive Rights, who said they will appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court to try and block the remaining three laws.
“We are stunned that the trial court would allow these unconstitutional laws to take effect — laws that will seriously reduce access to abortion in Oklahoma,” said Nancy Northup, the center’s president and CEO. “Right now, people in Texas are traveling to Oklahoma and other neighboring states to access abortion. If these laws take effect, it will decimate access not only in Oklahoma, but in the whole region.”
Texas’ recently enacted Senate Bill 8 imposes a near-total ban on abortion as it outlaws the procedure when a fetal heartbeat is detected at around six weeks of pregnancy. The law has forced women to seek abortion care in neighboring Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico. It offers no exceptions in cases of rape or incest and allows private citizens to seek up to $10,000 against abortion providers and anyone who “aids and abets” in an abortion procedure.
The Biden administration has since sued Texas in federal court in Austin, claiming SB 8 is unconstitutional. An Oklahoma City abortion clinic told the court in that case last month that SB 8 has caused two-thirds of their phone calls to be from Texas patients now.
Judge Truong’s ruling comes over two years after she allowed H.B. 1721 to stand. That law bans a common second-trimester abortion procedure that abortion rights advocates say is the safest such procedure. Passed in 2015, the law bans the dilation and evacuation procedure that alternates the use of suction and forceps to empty a uterus. HB 1721 had been blocked by a temporary injunction for four years before Truong’s ruling in 2019.
from Courthouse News
