State sued by advocate group
Five anti-abortion laws in Oklahoma subject of lawsuit
A group of reproductive rights advocates is suing to prevent five antiabortion laws from taking effect in Oklahoma.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, several Planned Parenthood affiliates, the Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice and Tulsa Women’s Reproductive Clinic are among groups that signed onto a lawsuit alleging a slate of new state laws violate a woman’s constitutional right to seek an abortion.
“Oklahoma’s purpose is to deprive people in Oklahoma of their constitutionally protected right to choose whether to terminate their pregnancy before viability,” the lawsuit says.
Filed Thursday in Oklahoma County District Court, the lawsuit names Republican Attorney General John O’Connor, Health Commissioner Lance Frye, district attorneys for Oklahoma and Tulsa counties, and state health professionals that oversee medical licenses and pharmacy regulations.
The lawsuit challenges the following laws that are set to take effect Nov. 1:
• House Bill 1102 that says medical professionals who perform an abortion not necessary to save a mother’s life or “prevent substantial or irreversible physical impairment” are engaging in “unprofessional conduct” and shall have their medical license suspended for at least one year
• House Bill 2441 that prohibits an abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, often before a woman knows she is pregnant
• House Bill 1904, which says abortions can only be performed by physicians who are board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology. Critics say this will severely limit the number of medical professionals that can perform abortions.
• Senate Bill 778 and Senate Bill 779, which increase regulations on medication abortions in which a woman can terminate her early-stage pregnancy through a two-dose abortion pill regimen.
If these laws take effect, abortion will become nearly inaccessible in Oklahoma with exceptions only for rare, life-threatening situations, said Rabia Muqaddam, staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The lawsuit alleges HB 1102 is essentially a “total ban” on abortions because it would prevent medical providers from performing the procedure in nearly all situations.
“To claim that providing essential health care is ‘unprofessional conduct’ is ludicrous,” Dr. Alan Braid, owner of Tulsa Women’s Reproductive Clinic, said in a news release. “If these laws were to go into effect as intended, they would push abortion out of reach for the many Oklahomans who just don’t have the resources to travel out of state. We’ll do everything we can to stop them.”
All five laws were approved this year by Oklahoma’s GOP-led Legislature and signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt.
After signing the bills, Stitt said he was fulfilling his campaign promise to approve every piece of anti-abortion legislation that advanced to his desk. At the time, he brushed off questions about the constitutionality of the antiabortion restrictions, saying “we’ll let the courts work out if any of those get overturned.”
Since Republicans have gained control of the Legislature, it’s not unusual for the majority to pass anti-abortion laws, some of which are later struck down in court.
However, the five bills passed in quick succession this spring represent a “real acceleration” of the Legislature’s attempt to challenge Roe v. Wade — the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established the constitutional right for women to seek an abortion, Muqaddam said.
Arguing that the five laws violate a woman’s rights to health and to choose to terminate her pregnancy under the due process clause of the Oklahoma Constitution, the lawsuit asks a judge to declare the laws unconstitutional, which would make them null and void.
Previously, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Federation of America successfully challengedStitt’s decision to prohibit most abortions in Oklahoma as part of
All five laws were approved this year by Oklahoma’s GOP-led Legislature and signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt.
a ban on elective surgeries while the state grappled with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new Oklahoma lawsuit comes on the heels of a restrictive abortion law, perhaps the strictest in the nation, taking effect Wednesday in Texas. At least one local abortion provider says the new Texas law could result in more people traveling to Oklahoma and neighboring states to seek treatment.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court gave abortion opponents a major victory when, in a split decision, the court declined to block Texas’ six-week abortion ban. Although the justices said their emergency ruling is not an indication of whether they think the Texas law is constitutional, it could be an early sign of a changing legal landscape on abortion issues.
Stitt, O’Connor and all seven members of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation signed onto legal briefs urging the high court to overturn its longstanding protections for abortion when it hears a case on a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks.
“Human life begins at conception, and abortion is antithetical to our country’s foundation as a free and moral people,” O’Connor previously said in a statement. “When the Supreme Court issued Roe v. Wade in 1973, the Court did not adhere to the rule of law or the Constitution, but instead dehumanized an entire class of people by ordering states to allow the abortions.”