District Judge sides with Oklahoma abortion rights group

The suit, filed on behalf of Reproductive Services, a nonprofit reproductive healthcare facility in Tulsa, and the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice, argues the law prohibited off-label use of abortion-inducing drugs purposefully and unconstitutionally, which limited non-surgical abortion options in Oklahoma.

A judge has struck down an Oklahoma law requiring doctors to follow label instructions when prescribing abortion-inducing drugs, finding the rule is unconstitutional because it doesn’t apply to other kinds of medication.

The state’s Republican leaders, who have enacted a series of abortion restrictions, planned to appeal the decision from Oklahoma District Judge Patricia Parrish of the law the governor signed previous year.

A state court judge failed to block the measure in late October 2014, but the state Supreme Court stepped in shortly thereafter and blocked the measure from taking effect while the legal challenge continued. He said at least six women have died in the U.S. after being administered the drugs, justifying the state’s law requiring adherence to the FDA protocol.

In putting down the regulation, Parrish stated she was sure by a choice handed down by the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom in 2012.

“The law in question is designed to protect both unborn life and the health and life of the mother”, Fallin said.

In 2012, the state Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional a bill that banned drug-induced abortions altogether.

Among the drugs covered by the laws is mifepristone, originally known as RU-486.

Since approval, it was discovered that mifepristone could be taken in smaller dosages and when women are nine weeks pregnant, two weeks longer than specified in the FDA protocol.

Opponents of the law said it unfairly singled out abortion medications and say it is not the first time Oklahoma has tried to pass similar laws.

Eight deaths caused by bacterial infections and related to the off-label method also were mentioned by Mansinghani.

This is the third time in the past four years Oklahoma politicians have passed legislation restricting women’s access to medication abortion in the state, including a measure that would have effectively banned the method in 2011.