Oklahoma ultrasound law overturned!

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I love good news. Yesterday, a judge in Oklahoma overturned a state law requiring women seeking abortions to get an ultrasound and have the doctor "describe" the fetus.

Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson said the law violated constitutional requirements that legislative measures deal only with one subject. He did not rule on the validity of the ultrasound provisions.

Last October, a Tulsa abortion provider sued the state, arguing that the law unconstitutionally vague and that it violates a patients privacy and prevents doctors' from using their medical judgment.

Stephanie Toti, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, who represented the clinic, also said the ultrsound mandate is "an affront to women's autonomy and decision-making power, and it's also an intrusion to the physician-patient relationship."

Because what these ultrasound provisions and "informed consent" laws actually are saying is that women who have made the decision to end a pregnancy are too stupid to understand what they're doing unless it's put up on an easy-viewing screen. As Sarah Blustain wrote in a 2007 TAP piece, the laws rely "on the notion that a woman seeking an abortion doesn't actually understand what being pregnant means." So kudos to Judge Robertson for overturning a law based on the idea that women are idiots. That makes my Wednesday.