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The US state of Oklahoma has passed some of the country's toughest restrictions on abortion, requiring women to undergo an ultrasound just an hour before having a termination.
By Alex Spillius in Washington
Published: 10:59PM BST 28 Apr 2010
Even women who are victims of rape or incest will be required to view the image prior to the procedure and listen to a detailed description of what can be seen.
They would also be given vaginal rather than abdominal ultrasounds as doctors are required to use the method that "would display the embryo or foetus more clearly".
The laws, which were immediately challenged yesterday by "pro-choice" groups, also allow doctors to withhold test results showing foetal defects.
The second bill shielded doctors from lawsuits by parents with disabled children who may have chosen to have an abortion if they had they been informed about genetic or other defects. Opponents argued that doctors who want to withhold information because of their own beliefs would now be protected by law.
The Centre for Reproductive Rights has filed a lawsuit claiming the ultrasound law breaks the state's constitution on multiple grounds.
Nancy Northup, the president, said: "That is shocking, because women expect doctors to provide them with full information about their pregnancy."
The new requirement, she said, "profoundly intrudes upon a patient's privacy and violates free speech rights by forcing patients to listen to information unnecessary for medical care".
Abortion has been allowed in the US since the controversial 1973 Roe V Wade decision in the Supreme Court, which ruled on the basis of a women's right to privacy that states could not prohibit access to abortions prior to foetal viability, generally seen to be somewhere around 24 weeks, or when the pregnancy threatened the woman's health.
The issue has remained deeply controversial and bitterly divisive. The legislation in Oklahoma is among the most severe of 500 anti-abortion measures, either passed or proposed, chiefly in Republican-dominated states since a 2007 Supreme Court decision banning late term abortions.
Oklahoma, with a population of 3.7 million, is already one of the most difficult states in which to get an abortion, with only three doctors willing to perform them.
------------------------------------------------ The ultrasound has to be vaginal, the Dr. and the patient are required by law to do this.
Lindaland
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posted April 28, 2010 10:13 PM
