Yesterday, October 7, 2009, the Oklahoma legislature passed a law requiring that private and identifying information be published online for women who have had abortions in state in order to deter women from having abortions. While this is only one of a plethora of restrictions on women’s right to choose in Oklahoma, it is a particularly dangerous one. The law has no actual scientific purpose, the manner in which the data is collected is practically unusable for any objective research, instead it is meant to shame and endanger women who seek this medical procedure. It even goes so far as to ask women why they are getting the procedure and outlaws any sex-based abortions. Though women’s names are not published, information such as their age, race, level of education, marital status, number of previous pregnancies, and the county in which the abortion was performed. Such information could easily identify a woman living in a smaller town. No woman should have her medical history judged in the public square and the idea that this will deter abortions shows an unfathomable misunderstanding of pregnancy and abortion in this country. Abortions are not sought simply by promiscuous teenagers that the overly paternalistic legislature is trying to make “take responsibility”. You have to be 18 or have parental consent in Oklahoma anyway. Abortions are sought by women for a wide variety of reasons including incest, rape, health of the mother, viability of the fetus or inability to care for the child. Irrelevant of the reason, it’s private.
Likewise, the paperwork is incredibly long and puts an additional burden on already overstretched doctors and nurses at the handful of clinics in the state. The publication of this information is a potential violation of HIPPA and the Oklahoma Constitution and while there are likely to be suits to overturn the bill, they will not be able to have an effect for some time. The law goes into effect on November 1st.
Regardless of your feelings on the abortion debate, publishing women’s private medical history with information that could easily identify them is a gross abuse of power by the legislature. It is not a matter of religion and scare tactics that drive women’s health procedures further underground are never for the public good. Abortion will be reduced when the need for them is reduced through accessible and affordable contraceptives, education regarding contraceptive use and family planning as well as prevention of sexual abuse. We need to let our legislators know that this is not acceptable. Please look up your representatives here: http://www.lsb.state.ok.us/. Write and call them immediately and let them know that you do not want this law. Pass this information on to every Oklahoma voter that you know. Below are several articles and the language of the law itself.
http://mobile.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/10/07/okla_abortion/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/oklahoma-abortion-law-det_n_313779.html
http://jezebel.com/5376502/new-oklahoma-law-will-put-details-of-all-abortions-online
http://www.sos.state.ok.us/documents/Legislation/52nd/2009/1R/HB/1595.pdf
(Photo Credit: Michael Cross / KOSU / NPR)