Vol. 74/No. 19      May 17, 2010

One law requires a woman to undergo an ultrasound an hour or less before a scheduled abortion. She must then be shown a screen depicting the image and hear an explanation from the doctor about the fetus, including whether arms, legs, and internal organs are visible, and about heart activity.

The second law prevents women from seeking damages if physicians withhold information or provide them with inaccurate information about the health of the fetus.

Oklahoma’s ultrasound measure is one of the strictest in the nation. There are 13 other states that have sonogram requirements, according to the Guttmacher Institute. But only in Oklahoma are women forced to see a computer monitor of the image and hear a speech about it.

Hours after its enactment, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit against the ultrasound measure. “The law forces a woman to hear information that she may not want to hear and that may not be relevant to her medical care,” stated a press release from the group.

“Not one patient would look at the screen and they all closed their eyes or turned their heads,” Linda Meek, director of Reproductive Services in Tulsa, one of the three abortion clinics in Oklahoma, told ABC news about the new law’s immediate impact. “But it’s hard to turn your ears off. Several of the patients were in tears afterwards. No one changed their mind.”

On May 3 an Oklahoma County district judge temporarily halted enforcement of the law and scheduled a court hearing on it for July 19.

Earlier this year, Oklahoma governor Bradford Henry signed two other antiabortion measures into law. One requires clinics to post signs saying that a woman cannot be forced to have an abortion, and another makes abortions based on the fetus’s gender illegal.

Also making its way through Oklahoma’s legislature are two other restrictive laws. One would force women to fill out a lengthy questionnaire about why they are seeking an abortion. Another restricts insurance coverage for the procedure.  
 
 
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