The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 2014 measure to block access to medication-induced abortion is unconstitutional.
“Today’s decision is a critical victory for Oklahoma women and their doctors,” said Autumn Katz, Senior Counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Women deserve access to safe medication abortion regardless of what state they live in.”
The 2014 law, H.B. 2684, required women seeking drug-induced abortions to take three times as many medications than the singular necessary drug. The law also prohibited women from undergoing a medication abortion after 49 days of pregnancy, forcing them to have a surgical abortion instead.
The court ruled that “the law of the land [is] that a woman has a constitutionally protected right to make an independent choice to continue or terminate a pregnancy before viability.”
The ruling upholds an Oklahoma County judge’s decision in 2017 to overturn a state-wide law restricting access to medication-induced abortions, signed by former Republican Gov. Mary Fallin.
The Center for Reproductive Rights filed case to challenge the law in September 2014 on behalf of the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice.
