The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit late last week against an Oklahoma abortion law that requires doctors to perform an ultrasound and describe the image to a woman before she can have an abortion. The lawsuit addresses provisions of the law that prevent a patient from suing if a doctor withholds information about possible developmental defects. It also questions the legislated regimen for administering mifepristone, which the Center for Reproductive Rights claims is both “less effective and more costly than the one strongly recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.” The law is scheduled to go into effect on November 1.
State Senator Todd Lamb, chief sponsor of the law, told Tulsa World that the “lawsuit seeks to undo important reforms that provide women with information that helps them give informed consent prior to receiving an abortion.” The Center for Reproductive Rights outlined their contrasting position in a press release, which said: “the Oklahoma law profoundly intrudes upon a patient’s privacy, endangers her health, and assaults her dignity.”
Lead attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights on the case Stephanie Toti said, “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 .Governments should stop playing doctor and leave medical determinations to physicians and health decisions to individuals.”
