Oklahoma passes extreme anti-choice laws, one allows docs to lie to patients

Oklahoma passed two extreme anti-choice laws Tuesday after the House and Senate voted to override the governor’s vetoes. This was the second attempt to pass these bills – both laws were already passed and struck down on a technicality last year.

The first is the country’s most extreme ultrasound law yet. Women seeking abortions will be forced to undergo ultrasounds. Doctors will have to set up the monitor so the woman can see it, and must describe the heart, limbs, and organs of the fetus. There are not even exceptions in the case of rape or incest. This goes beyond already invasive and paternalistic measures in other states that require women to undergo ultrasounds and require doctors to give their patients a chance to see the image.

The Center for Reproductive Rights has already filed a challenge to the law. From their press release:

“It is extremely disappointing that the Oklahoma legislature insists on passing a law that is so clearly unconstitutional and so detrimental to women in the state,” said Stephanie Toti, staff attorney in the U.S. Legal Program of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “The state has already spent the last two years defending this abortion restriction and several others–without success. Another round in the courts won’t change our strong constitutional claims against the law, it will only waste more of Oklahoma taxpayers’ time and money.”
The Center argues that the ultrasound requirement profoundly intrudes upon a patient’s privacy and is the most extreme ultrasound law in the country. The law forces a woman to hear information that she may not want to hear and that may not be relevant to her medical care. It also dangerously discounts her abilities to make healthy decisions about her own life by forcing her to hear information when she’s objected. In addition, the statute interferes with the doctor-patient relationship–potentially damaging it–by compelling doctors to deliver unwanted speech.

“Politicians have no business making medical decisions,” said Toti. “When they do, it seriously undermines doctors’ ability to give patients the best medical care and does absolutely nothing to improve the health of patients.”

The second law bars women from suing their doctor if they withhold information about birth defects. Yep, it protects doctors who lie to their patients.

Governor Brad Henry had this to say about the measure when he vetoed the bills:

By prohibiting recovery of damages in wrongful birth and life malpractice actions, the legislation would allow unscrupulous, reckless or negligent physicians to knowingly withhold information or negligently provide inaccurate information to pregnant women without facing the potential of legal consequences. At the very least, pregnant women and their families should expect to receive accurate, comprehensive information from their doctor so they can make appropriate medical decisions. It is unconscionable to grant a physician legal protection to mislead or misinform a pregnant woman in an effort to impose his or her personal beliefs on his patient.

Gov. Henry expects a legal challenge to this law as well, and I agree. So anti-choicers are basically wasting the state a bunch of money in legal costs.