From today's LA Times:
Provisions are struck down that would have required every patient seeking an abortion to receive an ultrasound and a doctor's description of the fetus.
From the state that brought you Dr. Tom Coburn and Jolly Jim Inhofe! Amazing, no?
A short discussion after the jump....
I'm an Okie, though I currently reside in NY State, and I still follow the politics (such as it is) in the reddest of the red. This law was a boon to the fundamentalist whackos that have a stranglehold on culture and politics in the Sooner State. Many Okie Dems, however, saw this coming. The law stated that not only must doctors performing abortions provide an ultrasound first, it also allowed doctors and nurses to opt of the procedure on moral grounds, as well as allowing signage crafted by the likes of Focus on the Family to be prominently displayed in providers' locations. It turns out that it was unconstitutional. Of course, there was also the matter of it being so poorly written that doctors couldn't figure out exactly what they were supposed to do in any given circumstance, even solely involving ultrasound procedures.
Now, while I applaud the courage of a judge in fundie OK taking on the issue (indeed as she had to: the law was waiting for just such a constitutionality test before being implemented, though passed a while ago), I do fear that this will bring the crazies back into a culture battle that they just love to have. Given the strategy posited by some in the similarly egregious ND abortion law case that such a law was knowingly too far in the hopes of a higher court challenge, I think this could turn out to be a distraction in the long run. It could be framed any number of ways that encompass the health care debate. Not that OK was clamouring for HCR in the first place, but this certainly won't help reform advocates trying desperately to make their case to the largely ignorant Repub base that outnumbers them by a wide margin.
It could be a case of Chicken Little-ing this on my part, but I know the lengths OK state politicos will go to to gin up fear and division (see: Sally Kern). I just hope this dies a quiet death without too long of an appeal process. I won't, however, be holding my breath.
Thoughts?