Oklahoma had three laws prohibiting abortion, but on Wednesday the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that two of those laws (enacted under SB 1603 and HB 4327) are unconstitutional because they require a "medical emergency" before a physician can perform an abortion.
"We read this section of law to require a woman to be in actual and present danger in order for her to obtain a medically necessary abortion," the majority opinion said in March. "We know of no other law that requires one to wait until there is an actual medical emergency in order to receive treatment when the harmful condition is known or probable to occur in the future."
Steven Ertelt of LifeNews spoke with AFN about the 6-3 ruling. "… The state Supreme Court wanted to make sure that women in life-threatening situations had the option to have an abortion … and it felt that two of the laws did not provide sufficient clarity about being able to have an abortion in that kind of a situation. So, they struck down those two laws," he tells AFN.
Fortunately, he explains, Oklahoma has a pre-Dobbs abortion ban.
"In other words, Oklahoma had a law banning abortions prior to the Dobbs decision last summer," says Ertelt. "The great news is babies in Oklahoma are still protected from abortions there today – and that's good news in the Sooner State."
In a press release, the office of state Attorney General Gentner Drummond's said: "Despite the court's decisions today on SB 1603 and HB 4327, Oklahoma's 1910 law prohibiting abortion remains in place. Except for certain circumstances outlined in that statute, abortion is still unlawful in the State of Oklahoma."
The laws had been challenged by the Center for Reproductive Right on behalf of an abortion provider in Tulsa.
