The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down a law Tuesday that required doctors who perform abortions in the state to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, saying it placed an unconstitutional “undue burden on a woman’s access to abortion.”
The move overturns a lower court’s February decision that upheld the law, S.B. 1848, which Republican Gov. Mary Fallin signed in 2014.
Under the law, abortion providers needed a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic to agree to accept patients in the case of an emergency. The law’s supporters ― largely anti-abortion activists ― claimed it was geared toward protecting women’s health. Reproductive rights advocates, however, characterized the requirement as a medically unnecessary sham meant to further restrict women’s access to abortion. Critics also noted that hospitals must admit patients whose lives are in danger, regardless of the situation.
The Oklahoma ruling comes after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar law in Texas this year, and put one in Louisiana on hold. The court has ruled that the admitting privileges requirement does not provide a health or safety benefit that outweighs the undue burden it creates for women seeking an abortion.
The requirement adversely impacts rural areas and prompts clinics to close. The number of abortion clinics in Texas dropped by about half ― from more than 40 clinics to 19 ― after the state’s restrictive HB 2, which included a hospital admission privilege restriction, went into effect in 2013.
According to Tuesday’s ruling in Oklahoma, expert testimony in the Texas case noted that it’s unlikely for a women experiencing complications from an abortion to require hospitalization. And in the rare case that a woman does need to be hospitalized, “the quality of care that the patient receives is not affected by whether the abortion provider has admitting privileges at the hospital.”
In response to the decision, Fallin said she was “disappointed to see another pro-life law stuck down by the courts.”
“Like many bills passed in Oklahoma, this bill was designed to protect the health and welfare of the mother along with the life of the unborn, which always should be among our society’s priorities,” she said.
Before You Go
