Wednesday, August 19, 2009

A Moment of Oklahoma Pride!

Oh how sweet it feels, to be bursting with pride for my home state. Too often in feminist circles, I have to wince and turn away when Oklahoma comes up, but today is truly a rarity to enjoy!

Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson ruled yesterday that a law requiring Oklahoma women seeking abortions to receive and ultrasound and description of their fetus from a physician is illegal. The multi-provisioned law was overturned on account of its violation of a constitutional limitation that laws may only address a single subject.

Oh, be still my fluttering heart! Also overturned were some other provisions that allowed physicians to refuse to perform abortions on moral grounds and affected their ability to prescribe the medical abortion pill off-label.

As of 3:50 today, however, the Tulsa World reports that the State of Oklahoma will be appealing Judge Robertson's overturn of the law. As things progress, I'll try to update you all on what you can do to defend the Judge's ruling.

Thanks to Judge Robertson, to Reproductive Services of Tulsa, run by Nova Health Systems, and their representation in court by the Center for Reproductive Rights, whose hard work got this law overturned. We hope it survives appeal. Stay tuned for updates!

Photo of downtown Tulsa courtesy of chad_k on flickr.

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