AG: Abortion law should go into effect
The Oklahoma Supreme Court should allow the state “to begin treating the unborn with at least the same dignity as death row inmates and animals,” the Oklahoma Attorney General's office told justices on Friday in defense of a state abortion law that has been on hold for four years.
In written arguments, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter's office urged the court to deny an emergency injunction to a Tulsa abortion clinic suing the state over a 2015 law that bans the dilation and evacuation abortion method after 14 weeks unless “fetal demise” is performed first.
The l aw was barred from going into effect while it was being contested in court in Oklahoma County. In July, Oklahoma County District Judge Cindy Truong ruled that the l aw was constitutional, but the injunction was kept in place pending appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
The Tulsa Women' s Reproductive Clinic has urged the Oklahoma Supreme Court to keep the injunction in place.
“The United States Supreme Court has already held, repeatedly, that such a ban on the most common method of abortion isunc ons titutional,” the Tulsa Women's Reproductive Clinic told the court earlier this month.
Hunter' s office argued Friday that keeping the injunction in place would infringe on“Oklahoma' s important interests in prohibiting cruel and in humane practices, in promoting ethical behavior in the medical profession, and in advancing the cause of a humane society.
“But the harm to the State pale sin comparison with that faced by the unborn. The past f our years, hundreds, if not thousands, of unborn Oklahomans have been torn apart while alive because of the ongoing injunction. If this law is (again) enjoined, that tragedy will continue.”
Hunter' s office argued Friday that the law would not place a burden on the constitutional right to abortion because the method would still be available after 14 weeks as long as fetal demise, often done chemically, was performed.
Demise procedures“are widely used and practical, and they are considered safe, effective, ethical, and beneficial,” the attorney general's office told the court.
The medical director at the Tulsa clinic can perform fetal demise but “she just doesn't want to because she disagrees with it,” Hunter's office told the high court.
“That is her prerogative, but it doesn't somehow make Oklahoma's law subject to an injunction.”
It is not clear when the Oklahoma Supreme Court will rule.
The Tulsa clinic has called Truong's decision “an extreme outlier.”
“Every one of 10 other state and federal courts to consider a similar law has blocked it from taking effect, either through preliminary or permanent injunctions, based on the (U.S.) Supreme Court's clear precedent and the tremendous burden such laws would have on women and their ability to access abortion,” the clinic told the Oklahoma Supreme Court.