Oklahoma’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that the state constitution protects the right to abortion to preserve the life of the mother and that a doctor need not wait until there is an immediate medical emergency to perform an abortion.
In a 5-4 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that a law passed last year that only allows life-saving abortions in “medical emergencies” , violated the “inherent right to life” provided for in the state constitution.
The Court did not strike down the 1910 abortion ban, which provided an exception for the preservation of the mother’s life without medical emergency. Nor did she consider whether the state constitution included a right to abortion in other circumstances.
Oklahoma began enforcing both laws after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade of 1973, which guaranteed the right to abortion throughout the country. Planned Parenthood and other abortion service providers have filed a lawsuit challenging these laws.
“While we are relieved that Oklahoma residents at risk of death have the right to care, the decision to uphold the state ban prior to the Roe ruling is unconscionable,” said Alexis McGill Johnson. , president of Planned Parenthood, in a statement.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tuesday’s decision comes amid widespread uncertainty in abortion-banning states about when doctors can perform the procedure if it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother. Some women were forced to wait until they were in immediate danger before getting an abortion, even though doctors had anticipated the risk much earlier.
The majority of Oklahoma judges ruled that a physician may perform an abortion after determining, with “a reasonable degree of medical certainty or probability”, that a pregnancy is life-threatening to the mother, and that ‘absolute certainty’ is not necessary.
“We are not aware of any other law that requires one to wait until there is a true medical emergency to receive treatment when one knows or believes the harmful condition will occur in the future,” they wrote in an unsigned review.
“To require that one wait until there is a medical emergency would further endanger the life of the pregnant woman and would not serve the compelling interest of the state,” they added.
Four justices, all appointed by Republican governors, disagreed, saying the majority failed to consider the interests of unborn children and went beyond the text of the Constitution. A Republican-appointed judge joined the four Democratic-appointed judges in the majority.
Twelve of the 50 states, including Oklahoma, now completely ban abortion, while many others ban it after a certain length of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. .