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Next case
New abortion bill challenged

By World's Editorial Writers
Published: 10/1/2009 2:31 AM
Last Modified: 10/1/2009 4:42 AM

What a surprise: A controversial abortion measure passed last session has resulted in a lawsuit. Or should we say, another lawsuit.

This is the sort of outcome lawmakers can continue to expect if they want to keep trying to practice medicine and load up new laws with all kinds of irrelevant, unnecessary and unjustifiable requirements.

The latest challenge is over House Bill 1595, which would require physicians to transmit detailed information about patients receiving abortions to the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Required information includes age, marital status and education level of the patient; number of previous pregnancies; a reason for the abortion; cost of and payment method for the procedure; and the nature of the mother's relationship with the father. It was to go into effect Nov. 1.

The value of such information to state authorities is questionable at best, and invasive and indefensible at worst. But that's not the only problem with this measure. Plaintiffs challenging it in Oklahoma County District Court contend it violates Oklahoma's constitutional requirement that a law cover only one subject. They allege this one covers four subjects.

Another similarly misguided law was recently thrown out by an Oklahoma County judge who found that it violated the constitutional one-subject rule. Senate Bill 1878 required that ultrasounds be performed prior to abortions, and that doctors provide detailed descriptions to patients of what the ultrasounds show, among other mandates.

The attorney general's office is appealing that ruling, and it's possible the AG will have another appeal to pursue soon if the latest challenge is successful. Is that really how taxpayers want their top legal official spending his resources? What's more, there are believable estimates that HB 1595 will cost taxpayers at least a quarter-of-a-million dollars a year. Think how many teachers could be hired for that sum.

As one advocate put it, these abortion restrictions have nothing to do with protecting Oklahomans and everything to do with the political agendas of the lawmakers who push them. By World's Editorial Writers

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	Report Comment billy8, Sand Springs (10/1/2009 10:50:12 AM) Too much government interference into peoples personal lives.If you make it harder to do something it will go underground and still be going on even stronger. Abortion, and drugs, when outlawed will proliferate even more and cost more when driven underground by draconian laws.
	Report Comment Thunder196, Tulsa (10/1/2009 12:07:31 PM) When are they going to start representing the people, instead of their religious beliefs with these intrusive laws.
	Report Comment freewoman, (10/9/2009 3:45:31 AM) Oklahoma isn’t just shaming women who have abortions — it’s painting a target on their back. Enough information that Operation Rescue — or one of their crazier, more dangerous imitators — to solve the puzzle and then stalk, threaten, or hey with any luck, maim or murder one or more of these women. That’s the point, ladies and gentlemen — killing the abortion doctors is no longer enough for wingnuts. A similar program in another red state, where the data collected was supposed to remain private, somehow got "leaked" to Bill O’Reilly. Oklahoma will be publicly posting the patients’ data on the internet, open to any gun nut with messianic tendencies. But he or she will then be labeled a lone nut, and hands will be wrung — oh who could have predicted? Anyone with a conscience.

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