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Supporters of the legislation said it’s needed to ensure state funds go to “more comprehensive providers” of health care services.

“The governor is clearly listening to his friends in the abortion lobby, rather than ensuring that women have access to quality care,” said Del. Ben Cline, the measure’s sponsor.

Oklahoma lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill making it a felony for doctors to perform abortions, which opponents say is essentially a ban on the procedure.

Malcolm wrote:Oklahoma more or less bans abortions.

Oklahoma lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill making it a felony for doctors to perform abortions, which opponents say is essentially a ban on the procedure.

Coat hangers are still pending Oklahoma legislature approval.

which opponents say is essentially a ban on the procedure.

Alhazad wrote:

Malcolm wrote:Oklahoma more or less bans abortions.

Oklahoma lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill making it a felony for doctors to perform abortions, which opponents say is essentially a ban on the procedure.

Coat hangers are still pending Oklahoma legislature approval.

which opponents say is essentially a ban on the procedure.

What the fuck is this John Madden verbal diarrhea?

"Dude, when you make something a felony, that's like making it illegal!"

The court previously defined an illegal "undue burden" as "the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus." That's what makes information about the potential effect of the law so crucial, and it's why public health researchers and advocates are anxious to see Texas' data from 2014, the first full year the admitting privileges requirement was in effect.

"The data is not final. If the data were final, we would release it. We hope to have it finalized soon," said Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the department.

But according to the state employee, who provided emails and screenshots to NBC News that appear to corroborate the timeline, the abortion statistics were in the final stages months ago. In fact, according to this individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of ongoing employment there, in December 2015, researchers in the relevant department were actually told to get the information ready sooner than the usual 15 months.

Texas officials have told the courts that their intention was not to make abortion harder to access — which would almost certainly render the law unconstitutional — but rather to protect women's health.

Crucial to the question of whether the law advances women's health, the researchers also found a "small but significant increase in the proportion of abortions that are second trimester," according to Grossman, suggesting women were facing longer waits or other hurdles.

A separate provision of the law, not before the court, specifically restricted the method Kennedy referred to as "medical procedures," or medication abortion. Women had to make up to four separate visits to a clinic, faced a smaller window of availability, and a higher, potentially riskier dosage of the pills involved. For women whose nearby clinics have closed, the additional visits in particular would have posed a potentially unconstitutional burden.

As for the geographical data, clinics in El Paso, Brownsville and McAllen, all along the Mexican border, closed when their doctors were unable to comply with the admitting privileges portion of the law. The clinics argued in their challenge that the law specifically burdened the disproportionately low-income and Latina residents there.

"There was no significant health-related problem that the new law helped to cure," Breyer wrote. "We agree with the District Court that the surgical-center requirement, like the admitting-privileges requirement, provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an "undue burden" on their constitutional right to do so."

Democrats: "All women deserve access to safe abortion facilities."

State of Texas: "OK."

SCOTUS: "Whoa! Not *that* safe."

TPRJones wrote:Every physician I've heard talk about the requirements say they are absurd. Some are downright impossible. For example most hospitals don't grant admitting privileges to doctors that work at abortion clinics.

Obviously not too impossible, as nine abortion clinics remained open under these laws.

A federal judge blocked an Indiana law Thursday that would have banned abortions sought because of a fetus' genetic abnormalities, saying that the state does not have the authority to limit a woman's reasons for ending a pregnancy.

The lawsuit also challenges the law's provision requiring that aborted fetuses be buried or cremated.

Indiana University has filed a separate federal lawsuit challenging a section of the new law making it a crime to sell or acquire fetal issue. The school argues the provision would illegally interfere with research by its scientists.

If the state government of Texas enforces them, what will happen?