Lawsuit Filed to Block Enforcement of New Oklahoma Ultrasound Law

Source:

The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) filed a lawsuit yesterday to stop the enforcement of a new Oklahoma state law that extends existing ultrasound requirements for women seeking an abortion. The law in question requires medical professionals to show women the ultrasound image and give women a detailed description of the fetus.

The lawsuit argues that the new elements of the ultrasound requirement intrude upon patient privacy and, according to a CRR press release, "forces a woman to hear information that she may not want to hear and that may not be relevant to her medical care [and] also dangerously discounts her abilities to make healthy decisions about her own life by forcing her to hear information when she's objected."

The suit was filed by the CRR on behalf of Nova Health Systems, operators of a Tulsa, Oklahoma, clinic, and Dr. Larry Burns, an Oklahoma abortion provider. According to the Associated Press, the suit seeks a temporary restraining order that would block enforcement of the new law, which went into effect immediately following the veto override yesterday.

Early in March, the Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld the February ruling of a state District Court saying the law was unconstitutional on the basis that it violates state rules requiring legislation address only a single subject.

The bill was vetoed last Friday by state Governor Brad Henry, but then the Oklahoma state legislature overrode the veto this week. Governor Henry told CNN he rejected the bill because "State policymakers should never mandate that a citizen be forced to undergo any medical procedure against his or her will, especially when such a procedure could cause physical or mental trauma...To do so amounts to an unconstitutional invasion of privacy."

The Oklahoma state legislature also overrode the veto of a second anti-choice bill that prohibits women from suing doctors who intentionally withhold information or provide misleading or inaccurate information about a pregnancy, reported the Associated Press. Henry responded to the override votes and told the Associated Press, "both laws will be challenged and, in all likelihood, overturned by the courts as unconstitutional...I fear this entire exercise will ultimately be a waste of taxpayers' time and money."

In March 2010, the Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld the February ruling of a state District Court saying that an anti-choice law that included the ultrasound provision was unconstitutional on the basis that it violates state rules requiring legislation address only a single subject.

In addition to the two vetoes, Henry did sign one anti-choice bill into law Friday. This law requires abortion clinics to post signs in their facilities stating that women cannot be coerced to have an abortion, that a woman's voluntary consent is required to obtain the procedure, and that sex selective abortions are illegal, reported the New York Times. Henry also signed three anti-choice bills into law on April 5. The first of these bills outlaws sex-selective abortion, the second bill institutes a "conscience clause" allowing healthcare providers to refuse to participate in abortion procedures or refer patients to abortion providers, and the third bill puts restrictions on the administration of mifepristone (also known as RU-486) by requiring it be administered in the presence of a physician.

Abortion Clinic Terrorism

Reposted from the Feminist Majority Foundation:

Terror in Charlotte

The posters have the word “WANTED” in large black letters at the top and contain the following language: “We would like to introduce you to Drs. X and Y [names withheld here]. Their specialties are Obstetrics, Gynecology and Murder. Not only do these two men assist women and deliver babies, but they also harm women and kill babies…. You may contact them at their office or the clinic in which they perform the abortions.”

Read full article by Carol Joffe, Ms. magazine Washington Correspondent

Violence Escalating at Abortion Clinics

A post-election call by anti-abortion extremists to “return to the streets” has resulted in an escalation of activity, threats, and violence around several women’s health clinics nationwide. Threats have again intensified since the May 31, 2009 murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas.

The Feminist Majority Foundation is working with local and federal law enforcement to protect threatened clinics. However, in some local jurisdictions law enforcement has been allowing varying levels of harassment. There must be nationwide zero tolerance of violence and harassment aimed at vilifying doctors, health care workers, and denying women’s fundamental right to reproductive health.

Current Threats

Some doctors and clinic administrators are being taunted with chants of “you’re next.” Right now, clinics in the following states are reporting harassment and threats:

Alabama California Colorado Iowa Kansas

Michigan Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska

North Carolina Ohio Pennsylvania Wisconsin

Operation Rescue's New Target

With the closure of Women’s Health Care Services Clinic in Wichita, Kansas, following Dr. Tiller’s murder, Operation Rescue, based in Wichita, has announced a new target: Dr. LeRoy Carhart of Bellevue, Nebraska. Dr. Carhart regularly traveled to Wichita each month to work with Dr. Tiller and has announced he intends to continue providing late abortion services and may open a clinic in Kansas.

Troy Newman of Operation Rescue along with Larry Donlan of Rescue the Heartland and Nebraskans United for Life announced a new multi-group campaign called “Keep it Closed.” The campaign aims to make sure Dr. Carhart does not open a late abortion clinic in Wichita, any other place in Kansas, or nearby Nebraska. And Newman hoped “through the use of peaceful, legal means” that Dr. Carhart “will soon be out of the abortion business for good.”

Operation Rescue launched its “Keep it Closed” campaign with targeted demonstrations and so-called “street counseling” in Omaha and at Carhart’s Bellevue clinic August 28-29. Also present was Norman Weslin, leader of the Lambs of Christ.

Escalating activities targeting Dr. Carhart and his staff eerily resemble the harassment of Dr. Tiller. Operation Rescue has posted photos of Dr. Carhart on its website and in a meeting with Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning submitted “evidence” of alleged “illegal” activity at Dr. Carhart’s clinic which Bruning referred to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Jon Bruning has previously spoken against Dr. Carhart and said “I hate it that he’s in America.”

As threats against doctors and clinics continue in some 14 states, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Planned Parenthood in Lincoln, Nebraska on August 28 but fell just short of the building, burning the pavement.

Dr. George Tiller: A Man Who Trusted Women

Dr. George Tiller, one of the few late abortion providers in the country, was murdered May 31, 2009, allegedly by anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder. He was. For years, Dr. Tiller endured countless threats, stalking, and harassment at the hands of anti-abortion extremists. In 1993, he was shot in both arms, surviving an assassination attempt by an Army of God follower, Shelley Shannon. His clinic was bombed and frequently vandalized. In early May, the clinic sustained $10,000 of damage by vandal(s) who purposefully disabled security cameras and sliced the roof prior to a rainstorm.

Scott Roeder was caught both the week and day before Tiller’s murder maliciously gluing shut the locks of a clinic in Kansas City, a tactic taught in the Army of God manual. The clinic director reported the vandalism and identified Roeder, who was captured on security cameras, to both federal and local law enforcement, but nothing was done.

Justifiable Homicide

Shockingly, some anti-abortion extremists are still calling "justifiable homicide" -- the murder of doctors -- a legitimate strategy to close clinics. Anti-abortion extremist Paul Hill, who in 1994 killed Dr. John Britton and a volunteer escort in a Pensacola, Florida was an early proponent of "justifiable homicide." Prior to the murders, for which Hill was ultimately executed by lethal injection, Hill was known to protest continuously outside the clinic, often holding a sign that stated “Execute murderers, abortionists, accessories?”

Even office holders have made statements that support justifiable homicide by anti-abortion extremists. During his 2004 US Senate campaign, Senator Tom Coburn (D-OK), said "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life.”

2008 Clinic Violence Survey

The Feminist Majority Foundation’s 2008 Clinic Violence Survey found that severe violence in 2008 impacted 20% of all abortion providers participating in the survey.

Strict Abortion Measures Enacted in Oklahoma

The New York Times reports that a bill we posted about earlier has been passed in Oklahoma, and it even has a scarier second bill:

The Oklahoma Legislature voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to override vetoes of two highly restrictive abortion measures, one making it a law that women undergo an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before having an abortion.

Though other states have passed similar measures forcing women to have ultrasounds, Oklahoma’s law goes further, requiring a doctor or technician to set up the monitor where the woman can see it and describe the heart, limbs and organs of the fetus. No exceptions are made for rape and incest victims.

The second measure passed into law Tuesday protects doctors from malpractice suits if they decide not to inform the parents of a unborn baby that the fetus has birth defects. The intent of the bill is to prevent parents from later suing doctors who withhold information to try to influence them against having an abortion.

Also, apparently

two other antiabortion bills are still working their way through the legislature. One would force women to fill out a lengthy questionnaire about their reasons for seeking an abortion and then post statistics online based on the answers. The other restricts insurance coverage for the procedure.

"Lake of Fire" Film Showing

Filmmaker Tony Kaye, best known for American History X, has been working on Lake of Fire for the past fifteen years and has made a film that is unquestionably the definitive work on the subject of abortion. Shot in luminous black and white, which is in fact an endless palette of grays, the film has the perfect aesthetic for a subject where there can be no absolutes, no 'right' or 'wrong.' He gives equal time to both sides, covering arguments from either extremes of the spectrum, as well as those at the center, who acknowledge that, in the end, everyone is 'right' - or 'wrong.'

Professor Mary-Jane Rubenstein will lead a discussion after the film. Sponsored by FemNet and Wesleyan Clinic Escorts.

ADVISORY: The film contains graphic images and language that may be upsetting to some viewers.

Facebook event here.

Date: Tuesday, April 27
Time: 7pm
Place: PAC 001

Scott Roeder Sentenced to 51 Years

From CBS News:

District Judge Warren Wilbert gave prosecutors what they wanted, a so-called "Hard 50" sentence for anti-abortion zealot Scott Roeder, 52, meaning Roeder won't be eligible for parole for at least 50 years for shooting Dr. George Tiller of Wichita.
...
Roeder, 52, also was sentenced to an additional year in prison on each of two counts of aggravated assault for threatening two church ushers as he fled. With time off for good behavior, Roeder won't be eligible for parole for 51 years and eight months.
...
District Judge Warren Wilbert could have made Roeder eligible for parole on the murder charge after 25 years. But he said there was evidence Roeder stalked Tiller and added that killing him in a church made the crime heinous because a house of worship is meant to be "a place of peace and tranquility."

And then the part where Roeder proves he's a hate-filled fruit loop:

Roeder also took the opportunity to describe abortion procedures in detail, which he had been forbidden from doing during his trial. Most abortions are legal in Kansas, and prosecutors were careful not turn the trial into a referendum on the issue.

Roeder accused Wilbert of "duplicity" and said his trial was a miscarriage of justice because he wasn't allowed to present testimony then about the evils of abortion. He also said God's judgment against the U.S. will "sweep over this land like a prairie wind."

"He will avenge every drop of innocent blood," Roeder said.

Forty minutes into his remarks, Wilbert stopped Roeder as he was about to publicly attack District Attorney Nola Foulston.

"It is not a forum for you to get on a soap box for you to give your entire political beliefs," Wilbert told Roeder.

Roeder later interrupted Wilbert several times as the judge pronounced sentence. When Wilbert read from a previous court decision saying that allowing vigilantism would promote chaos, Roeder said, "Baby murder is anarchy and chaos."

As he was being led away in handcuffs after the sentencing, Roeder shouted, "Blood of babies on your hands."

And I feel that the last part just demonstrates how messed up all of this is:

"Scott longs to be a law-abiding citizen," said Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines, Iowa. "He hates anarchy. He wants to do what he can to make America better."

Lee Thompson, the Tiller family's attorney and friend, called the murder an act of domestic terrorism. He said his office still receives calls from women seeking medical services.

"The impact of his death on women throughout the world is like an earthquake," Thompson said. "They ask, where can I go? What will I do?' I have to say, 'I'm sorry, I can't tell you.' That's the impact of this crime."

The New Health Care Reform Legislation: Pros and Cons for Reproductive Health

The Guttmacher Institute has a rundown of the health care bill and its implications for reproductive health. Check it out here.

Georgia Senate Passes New Abortion Bill

I'm not sure how I feel about this bill. It claims to only punish those who try to coerce women to have an abortion, which is good. Obviously having the right to choose involves having the right to choose to not have an abortion. But for some reason this bill makes me somewhat nervous. The language feels too vague, and it kind of stinks of paternalism. I'm worried that this would be used to restrict access to reproductive services under the guise of protecting women. A few quotes from the debate to get you thinking:

While it is clear that black women make up more than a majority of the state’s abortions, Pearson said that in 64 percent of abortions in Georgia, “some form of coercion is present.”...

The bill drew intense criticism from pro-choice senators, who questioned the bill’s purpose and legality.

“This bill was created under the false assumption that abortion doctors solicit women of color, particularly, black women,” said Sen. Donzella James of College Park. “This bill calls into question all who make a deeply private and personal medical decision. Every woman, regardless of ethnic background, should have the ability to make personal decisions. Not the people in this room. It is between, she, her family and God.”