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Abortion bill is challenged
A lawsuit alleges that the measure violates the Oklahoma Constitution.
 
By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau
Published: 9/30/2009  2:33 AM
Last Modified: 9/30/2009  4:23 AM

OKLAHOMA CITY — A lawsuit challenging a controversial abortion bill was filed Tuesday in Oklahoma County District Court.

The lawsuit alleges that House Bill 1595 by Sen. Todd Lamb, R-Edmond, and Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Tulsa, covers more than one subject and thus violates the Oklahoma Constitution.

The measure requires physicians to provide detailed information to the Oklahoma State Department of Health about the abortions they perform.

Information to be reported includes the age, marital status and education level of the woman; the number of previous pregnancies; a reason for the abortion; the method of the abortion and method of payment; the cost of the abortion; the type of medical health insurance; whether an ultrasound was given; and the nature of the mother's relationship with the father.

The lawsuit alleges that the bill covers four subjects, including redefining a number of abortion-related terms used in state law; banning sex-selective abortion; creating reporting requirements; and creating new duties for the Oklahoma State Department of Health, Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision, and state Board of Osteopathic Examiners.

Charlie Price, a spokesman for Attorney General Drew Edmondson, said, "We will be reviewing the lawsuit over the coming days and will respond to the claims appropriately."

Former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton, D-Oklahoma City, and Shawnee resident Lora Joyce Davis filed the lawsuit, which alleges that implementing the measure
will cost $281,285 the first year and $256,285 each subsequent year.

"As taxpayers of this state, we expect our representatives to follow the state Constitution, not pick and choose what measures suit them, then pass unconstitutional legislation that shortchanges their constituents by a quarter of a million dollars," Stapleton said.

Stapleton and Davis are represented by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which successfully challenged another recent Oklahoma abortion measure, Senate Bill 1878, on behalf of Reproductive Services of Tulsa.

Jennifer Mondino, a staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said, "These bundled abortion restrictions have nothing to do with protecting the people of Oklahoma and everything to do with lawmakers who have political agendas trying to make it harder for women to get abortions and harder for doctors to provide them."

HB 1595 is set to take effect Nov. 1. The plaintiffs are seeking to put that on hold, the Center for Reproductive Rights said.

Lamb, who is running for lieutenant governor, said he is confident that the bill will be upheld, calling it "common-sense legislation" that passed with bipartisan support.

The measure was billed as a way to prevent abortions based on the gender of the fetus.

SB 1878 required women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound within an hour of the procedure and have the findings explained to them.

Last month, Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson found that that law violated the Oklahoma Constitution because it covered more than one subject.

The state has said it will appeal the ruling on SB 1878.


Barbara Hoberock (405) 528-2465
barbara.hoberock@tulsaworld.com
By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau

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Some reader comments for this story were copied from "Lawsuit filed in Oklahoma County challenging abortion bill," which was published on 9/29/2009.

Report Comment
parksport, (9/29/2009 4:43:02 PM)
Leaving both abortion and religious debates aside for others to opine on, HB1595 seems to require patients to provide excessively detailed personal information for poorly defined purposes under the guise of preventing abortions based on the gender of the fetus without clarifying how this information will eventually be used or by who.
Report Comment
Proud Liberal, Weatherford (9/29/2009 5:11:33 PM)
BINGO parksport. And this from a political party who CLAIMS to dislike big government.
Report Comment
Thunder196, Tulsa (9/29/2009 5:25:57 PM)
I do not want to force my personal convictions on others, nor do I want someone else forcing their personal convictions on me. These elected officials seem to be doing that with this abortion bill. It should be challenged.
Report Comment
psychedelikrelik, Tulsa (9/29/2009 6:21:04 PM)
Ridiculous and intrusive, is there NO limit to what details of my personal life I must share with "the government?"

If it was me, I would SO lie my @$$ off.
Report Comment
insider9909, Cushing (9/29/2009 6:26:07 PM)
And the really nice thing is that these pro-birthers are costing taxpayer money. Drew should take a dive on this one.
Report Comment
Centrist, the burbs (9/30/2009 2:49:15 AM)
There is no other medical procedure that requires so much information required by the patient. This is ridiculous and an invasion of privacy.
Report Comment
dustyoutlaw, Tulsa (9/30/2009 5:29:25 AM)
LOL more lunatic fringe right wing nonsense. This won't get past any reviewing court in the land.

More pandering to the base.
Report Comment
Democrat, Tulsa County (9/30/2009 5:50:41 AM)
Well said by both, Centrist and dustyoutlaw. My wife and I always chose to add another welcomed little one to our family when she became pregant AND IT SHOULD BE OUR CHOICE-NOT ANYONE ELSE'S CHOICE.

We do not need Big Brother sticking his nose into our personal business.
Report Comment
dustyoutlaw, Tulsa (9/30/2009 5:57:51 AM)
Well you know Democrat I've said a number of times that I'm anti surgical abortion except for rape/incest/save a mother's life and I prefer the "morning after pill".

Having said that I don't want the govt making my decision either way so I won't make the decision for others.
Report Comment
Teddy Bear 1975, Eufaula (9/30/2009 6:44:32 AM)
It is a women if she go to bed with the guy or not. Abortion is cold blooded murder period.
Report Comment
Democrat, Tulsa County (9/30/2009 6:54:42 AM)
Wrong, Teddy Bear. Abortion is abortion. Murder is the wrongful taking of the life of another "person" as defined by law. Check out the constitutional definition of "person" that you can find in the fourteenth amendment. (All persons BORN or Naturalized.....etc.)
Report Comment
Eric, Tulsa (9/30/2009 7:38:00 AM)
...
The only violation here is the imposition of a few self-righteous lawmakers demanding that others follow their religious ideology.
...
..
.
Report Comment
AdamM, Tulsa (9/30/2009 7:57:16 AM)
Agreed. Big Bro needs to back the hell up. I am not for abortion. At the same time I have no right forcing my opinion on anyone. Big Bro is out to save us from ourselves again. YAY
Report Comment
cant_stop_jack, five (9/30/2009 8:21:59 AM)
More left liberal dogs with their do what you want lifestyle of sleeping with a man the night before and then killing the baby as a form of birth control. If I was murdering babies, I would not want to be reminded of it or hace to explain it either. Bottom of the barrel people for allowing the murder of babies behind closed doors. Pathetic. And it has nothing to do with religion, Eric the idiot. It has to do with murdering a baby. Are you that lacking of a soul? Of course you are.
Report Comment
cant_stop_jack, five (9/30/2009 8:23:40 AM)
Adam, let them kill their own babies huh? God see this. You cannot mouth off ignorance between cigarettes and beer and expect to be taken seriously. Let men rape children, as long as you don't do it, huh? Let women be raped as long as you don't do it? Let babies be murdered as long as you don't do it? You are even more pathetic.
Report Comment
cant_stop_jack, five (9/30/2009 8:25:44 AM)
dustyoutlaw, then murder should be allowed? Murder rape and stealing? Besides, if you do not know God, then it is the Government coming into your lives telling you not to do these things. I guess you think raping a child is ok? Of course you do. Amazing. The justification from the ignorant.
Report Comment
psychedelikrelik, Tulsa (9/30/2009 8:28:40 AM)
cant_stop_jack and all you other self-appointed moral custodians need to sweep out your own filthy life and stop trying to control the PRIVATE lives of women. This is none of your business.

Like I've said before, if they were asking me these ridiculous and invasive questions, I would lie my @$$ off!
Report Comment
Phil # 3, Yukon (9/30/2009 8:43:18 AM)
I'm sure we don't want to inconvenience women or make them in any way responsible for their decisions, whether the one that caused the pregnancy or the one that ends it.
Abortion on demand makes women as irresponsible as children and should be an insult even before considering the moral argument. Add to the fact that mothers can abort to skip the responsibility of their previous actions, they can also arrange to have the baby adopted or simply abandon a newborn and walk away, no questions asked in addition to keeping the baby and demanding either the government or the father pay her for her actions and decision. She also makes the father's decisions who has none of his own after conception.
The whole point is that many women demand "rights", which when all is said and done, it means rights without responsibility for women only. While there are others, abortion for convenience is one of the best examples.
Report Comment
:), (9/30/2009 8:43:21 AM)
I also hear that meat is murder... tasty murder.
Is it ok for MEN to eat steak as long as you don't?

And If abortion is murder, is miscarriage manslaughter?
Report Comment
Ayo, T-Town (9/30/2009 9:25:24 AM)
>>>>>"the age, marital status and education level of the woman; the number of previous pregnancies; a reason for the abortion; the method of the abortion and method of payment; the cost of the abortion; the type of medical health insurance; whether an ultrasound was given; and the nature of the mother's relationship with the father."

* Marital Status??
* Educational Level??
* RELATIONSHIP with the father??

Try any of that on an man and see just how far the bill would go. A man would NEVER allow any of that to be dic tated to him.

I hope this lawsuit sends these un-impregnable bozos back to the h ell from which they arose.
Report Comment
Ayo, T-Town (9/30/2009 9:28:02 AM)
No man will ever tell me what I can and cannot do.
Whether it's legal or illegal. No man will ever dic tate anything.

Don't need one to support me and never have, so I darn sure don't have to explain the 'relationship' with some bozo.

CHRISTIAN TALIBAN is alive and well in Oklahoma.
Report Comment
mnobles63, Tulsa (9/30/2009 10:13:33 AM)
So much for "keeping government out of our healthcare". To use an old quote "they want government off our back, but they don't mind it in a woman's uterus".
Report Comment
mnobles63, Tulsa (9/30/2009 10:14:36 AM)
AYO, if men had babies there would be an abortion clinic on every corner
Report Comment
dustyoutlaw, Tulsa (9/30/2009 11:13:41 AM)
You know what Jack? You accusing pro choice of being pedophile baby rapers shows just how unhinged you are. While I personally do not agree with surgical abortion, I tolerate it because it's the lesser of two evils.

The prime evil here is people like you who think that government intervention in health care is bad but see nothing wrong with government intervention into controlling everything else about our bodies to be proper.

The prime evil is saying that every conception has to be born to be subjected to the sex police like yourself.
Report Comment
dustyoutlaw, Tulsa (9/30/2009 11:14:56 AM)
Exactly Ayo. they are the Christian Taliban.
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