Oklahoma County District Judge Strikes Down Law Restricting Abortion-Inducing

An Oklahoma state judge permanently blocked a state law restricting medication abortion today, ensuring women in the state will continue to have access to a method of ending a pregnancy in its earliest stages using medication that has been proven safe by more than a decade of scientific evidence and medical practice.

District Judge Patricia Parrish struck down the current law, ruling that since it applied specifically to abortion-inducing drugs, it amounted to a “special law” prohibited in the constitution.

The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit last year on behalf of Reproductive Services, a nonprofit reproductive health care facility in Tulsa, and the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice.

The law would have required that these drugs be administered only in accordance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol.

In addition, attorneys argued the law forced doctors to treat women seeking abortions with outdated and less safe methods.

Among the drugs covered by the laws is mifepristone, originally known as RU-486. In October a state court judge failed to block the measure from taking effect, but the Oklahoma Supreme Court stepped in and did so while the legal challenge continued.

Which is odd, given that HB2684 was passed after the Oklahoma Supreme Court affirmed District Judge Donald Worthington’s decision.

The restrictions in the state will be lifted only after the Supreme Court reaches a decision over the state’s requirement for clinics to meet hospital-like surgical standards and for doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.

But since FDA approval, medical researchers and clinical trials have shown that mifepristone is effective in much smaller doses and for two weeks longer in a pregnancy.

“The conservative folks in this state will do whatever they can to put roadblocks in front of women to be able to make judgments and decisions about their own healthcare”, Hardwick said. The judge said the rule is unconstitutional as it does not apply to other kinds of medication.

It also was noted that 96 percent of medication abortions follow off-label protocol.

Ohio, Texas and North Dakota have similar laws restricting abortion-inducing drugs, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health policy.