Pro-Abortion Advocacy Group Challenges Oklahoma Law Requiring Ultrasounds

New York, NY (AHN) - The Center for Reproductive Rights has filed a lawsuit against an Oklahoma law that is intended to reduce the number of abortions and requires a woman to undergo an ultrasound to know the details about the fetus.

The advocacy group, which is a pro-choice law firm based in New York, challenged the law by filing the case in Oklahoma County District Court on Thursday.

The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of Nova Health Systems, the parent group of Reproductive Services in Tulsa, based on the measure that invades privacy, jeopardizes health, assaults dignity and free speech.

The controversial law also prevents a woman from filing a lawsuit against her doctor if he or she intentionally withholds other information about the fetus, such as a severe developmental defect.

The legislation prevents a woman's doctor from using his or her own medical judgment for treatment. It also discounts a woman's abilities to make healthy decisions about her own life by forcing her to hear information when she's objected.

"Anti-choice activists will stop at nothing to prevent a woman from getting an abortion, but trying to manipulate a woman's decisions about her own life and health goes beyond the pale," Stephanie Toti, staff attorney in the U.S. legal program of the advocacy group and lead attorney on the case, said in a statement.

She added, "Governments should stop playing doctor and leave medical determinations to physicians and health decisions to individuals."

Republican state Sen. Todd Lamb had proposed the Senate Bill 1878 to curb the number of abortions in the state.

"It protects the rights of healthcare workers to refuse to take part in the destruction of human life," Sen. Lamb said in a statement.

The law "changes Oklahoma's law to mirror federal regulations on the use of the dangerous abortion pill RU-486; protects women from being coerced into having an abortion," he said.

In the month of April the State Senate voted to override Gov. Brad Henry's veto of the measure by 37-11. The House of Representatives voted 81-15 in favor of the measure and to override the veto.