This article originally appeared at Women’s ENews

Okla. Abortion Publicity Law Blocked by Court

By Susan Elan, WeNews correspondent

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Enforcement
of an Oklahoma law that will publicize an unprecedented amount of
personal information about women who undergo abortions has been delayed
by at least one month, to Dec. 4, as part of a legal challenge.

(WOMENSENEWS)–An
Oklahoma law mandating that detailed information about patients who
have abortions be published on a state Web site was blocked by legal
action on Monday.

The law was scheduled to take effect Nov. 1.

To challenge the state constitutionality of the law, the New
York-based Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of
two Oklahoma women.

The center’s spokeswoman Dionne Scott said a temporary restraining
order that stops enforcement was granted late Monday by Oklahoma County
District Court Judge Twyla Mason Gray so that she could "look further
into the case."

The law, House Bill 1595, requires physicians to ask patients,
described as "mothers," up to 37 personal questions, including their
age, marital status, race, years of education, number of prior
pregnancies, reason for the abortion, method of abortion and payment
and whether an ultrasound was performed.

Former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton, an Oklahoma City Democrat who
brought the lawsuit with Lora Joyce Davis, a resident of Shawnee,
Okla., applauded the court granted reprieve.

"This is one of dozens of bills piled on year after year by the
Oklahoma legislature to place obstacles in the path of women,"
Stapleton said on Tuesday. "The bill points a public finger at women
and is intended to scare them to death."

Suspense about whether the law could take effect has been building
since Oct. 13 when the state court, at the request of the attorney
general, postponed an Oct. 30 hearing on the lawsuit in Oklahoma County
District Court until Dec. 4, which would have allowed the law to take
effect with the challenge pending.