A lawsuit that challenges an Oklahoma law on medical abortion is scheduled to be argued in an Oklahoma County courtroom.
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The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed last year by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights.
An Oklahoma judge struck down on Monday a law aimed at limiting the use of abortion-inducing drugs, saying the measure was unconstitutional because it did not apply to other medication.
Opponents to the law said this medication is typically administered in a newer and safer way than the FDA protocol and that the law was really just an attempt to make it harder for women to get abortions.
The state’s Republican leaders, who have enacted a series of abortion restrictions, planned to appeal the decision from Oklahoma District Judge Patricia Parrish of the law the governor signed past year. The US Supreme Court in June did not allow Texas to enforce a law that according to abortion-rights advocates would have caused closure of 10 of the state’s 19 clinics.
The law was passed in 2014, but had not gone into effect yet. He stated at the least six ladies have died within the U.S. after being administered the medicine, justifying the state’s regulation requiring adherence to the FDA protocol.
“This particular method has safer alternatives”, Mansinghani said.
Parrish in Oklahoma City blocked one law Monday.
“As the attorney general has maintained throughout the course of litigation, the Legislature was within its constitutional authority to take steps to prevent off-label uses of abortion drugs in order to protect the health and safety of Oklahoma women”, Cooper said. It is prescribed along with a second drug, misoprostol.
“The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and she said that this law is unconstitutional because it is singling out these medications exclusively when they’re used for ending a pregnancy”, said senior staff attorney Autumn Katz, of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Eight deaths caused by bacterial infections and related to the off-label method also were mentioned by Mansinghani.
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Katz said restricting the off-label use of the drugs did not serve a valid state interest and that about 2 million women have taken the drugs to induce abortions early in their pregnancies.
