Oklahoma Abortion Law Struck Down by Supreme Court: Women Seeking Pregnancy Terminations Not Required to See Ultrasound, Hear State Narrative

The Supreme Court upheld an Oklahoma state court's previous ruling on Monday to overturn a law that required all women seeking abortions to see an ultrasound image of their fetus while listening to an in-depth physical description of it prior to pregnancy termination.

The legislation called for all women to have the ultrasound, which also included a vaginal probe, even if they were opposed to the physical examination, the New York Times reported.

A handful of local medical experts said the requirement to verbally deliver a description of the developing baby came in conflict with a certain code of ethics for doctors.

The state's Supreme Court first struck down the case of Pruitt v. Nova Health Systems last December, calling it an unnecessary step in a woman's right to choose whether to end her pregnancy. The law also conflicted with a 1992 United States Supreme Court ruling in the case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which preserved a citizen's constitutional right to an abortion.

Oklahoma was one of four states including Louisiana, Texas and North Carolina to push for legislation that forced doctors who provided abortions to give ultrasound narrations one hour before the pregnancy abortion. The patient was allowed to look away from the screen if she so chose.

In its request that the high court examine the case, the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office said that ultrasounds are routine practices prior to all pregnancy terminations to find out how far along the fetus is in gestation.

"For many women actually seeing the ultrasound images has a necessary and critical impact in their decision-making process as to whether to terminate or continue their pregnancy to term," Special Assistant Attorney General Teresa Stanton Collett wrote in her brief.

Abortion clinics in Oklahoma who contested the law pushed the court not the hear Pruitt v. Nova Health Systems, the New York Times reported, saying that the bill was "rare if not unique."

"This is no garden-variety 'informed consent law,'" their brief read. "It does not merely make information available to a woman who wishes to terminate her pregnancy; it compels women to undergo an invasive medical examination and listen to a state-scripted narrative even if they object."