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Supreme Court justices dismiss another Oklahoma law on abortion

By Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer
updated 10:57 AM EST, Tue November 12, 2013
  • This is the second abortion law Oklahoma has had shot down recently
  • The Supreme Court justices refused to hear the appeal on sonagram requirement
  • Justices could rule soon on injunction request for Texas abortion law


The justices, without comment, refused to accept the state's appeal over HB 2780, which would require healthcare providers to perform an ultrasound scan before terminating a woman's pregnancy.


The new law mandated that pregnant women seeking an abortion be given the chance to view the ultrasound image and be given a medical description, including "the dimensions of the embryo or fetus, the presence of cardiac activity, if present and viewable, and the presence of external members and internal organs, if present and viewable."


State lawmakers supporting the legislation said the ultrasound requirement was designed to allow women to make an "informed decision" before undergoing an abortion.

Abortion rights groups objected to the Oklahoma statute.

"Oklahoma's unusual law imposes serious burdens on a woman's decision whether to terminate a pregnancy," said the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to stay out of the case.

"It is difficult to imagine a requirement more physically invasive than the state-mandated insertion of a medical device into one's body even when the patient and the doctor think it unnecessary."


That law would have regulated the ability of doctors to prescribe a medication regime -- using RU-486 pills -- to terminate early pregnancies, and make it a crime to deviate from the federal government-approved dosage and time limits on the drugs.



A federal appeals court last month allowed a similar law from Texas on medical abortions to go into effect. But a coalition of abortion rights groups immediately asked the Supreme Court for an emergency injunction to block that law's enforcement. The justices could rule on that request as soon as Tuesday.
