A new anti-choice law has gone into effect in Oklahoma, after the Republican-controlled state legislature overrode Governor Brad Henry’s veto of the proposed bill. The law, considered by some to be one of the strongest anti-abortion measures in the country, requires women seeking to have an abortion to hear a description of “the dimensions of the fetus, whether arms, legs and internal organs are visible and whether there is cardiac activity.” Additionally, the individual performing the ultrasound must also “turn the “screen depicting the ultrasound images toward the woman to see them.”

As one might guess, lawsuits have already been filed in an attempt to overturn the law, though until a judge issues an initial ruling, clinics must conform to the statute. Beyond the rather abhorrent intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship by the Oklahoma state legislature, the bill also compels patients to hear information that may have no relevance to their medical care and, extremely troublingly, offers no exemptions for incidences of rape and incest… meaning that a survivor of sexual assault would also be forced to hear this information. Which seems to me to be beyond insensitive, and firmly into the territory of outright cruelty.

According to a provider of abortion services in the state, women have already been leaving the ultrasound room in tears because of the new law. Tony Lauinger, state chairman for Oklahomans for Life, said that he hoped that the bill would help to “prevent psychological trauma to pregnant woman.” Which is, of course, laughable.

The Oklahoma legislature should not be making medical decisions for its constituents. It shouldn’t be forcing survivors of sexual assault to hear information that could be damaging to them. And it shouldn’t be hiding behind the notion of protecting women from trauma, when it really seems like they’re much more interested in inflicting it.

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