Last week NRL News Today reported that the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Tulsa, Oklahoma, abortionist challenging two pro-life laws.
Although reports are preliminary, after hearing arguments from both sides today, District Judge Patricia Parrish upheld one law — HB 1409 — and issued a temporary injunction that blocked a second — HB 1721 — from taking effect, according to the Associated Press. “The temporary injunction will last until a full hearing is held on the center’s challenge to the laws, and Parrish gave attorneys three months to prepare briefs,” according to the AP’s Sean Murphy.
Both HB1409 and HB 1721 were due to go into effect November 1.
HB1409, like HB1721, passed by a huge margin in both houses of the Oklahoma legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin. The Sooner state joined Missouri, South Dakota, and Utah in allowing women considering an abortion 72 hours to ponder this life-and-death decision.
When interviewed last week, Tony Lauinger, State Chairman of Oklahomans For Life, told NRL News Today that HB 1409 improves Oklahoma’s current abortion-informed-consent law by increasing from 24 hours to 72 hours the waiting period before an abortion, by requiring that abortion facilities, on their websites, link to the state’s Woman’s Right to Know website, and by providing that mothers considering abortion be informed that “abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.”
“The purpose of the law,” he added, “is to provide a better opportunity for adequate reflection – following receipt of informed-consent information about risks, alternatives, and the development of the unborn child – before undertaking the irrevocable act of taking a child’s life.”
However Judge Parrish temporary enjoined HB 1721, the AP reported. HB 1721 is titled the “Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act” and is on the books in Oklahoma and Kansas. What is a dismemberment abortion?
“Dismemberment abortion kills a living unborn baby by tearing his body apart piece by piece,” said National Right to Life Director of State Legislation Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D. “This is done to an unborn child who has a beating heart, brain waves, and every organ system in place. Dismemberment abortions occur after the baby has reached these milestones.”
Lauinger pointed to the on-camera statements of Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Senior Medical Director for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in the first of the undercover Planned Parenthood videos released this summer regarding the dismemberment abortions she performs.
Dr. Nucatola said
“You try to intentionally go above and below the thorax so that, you know — we’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that — so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
“Imagine what the Humane Society would say if the dog pound were eliminating unwanted pets by ripping the legs off living animals,” Lauinger said. “As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote of dismemberment abortions in Stenberg v. Carhart: ‘The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn apart limb by limb.’ “This tragic decision demonstrates the insidious nexus that exists between the abortion industry and their willing accomplices in black robes as they jointly carry on their bloody assault on our human family’s most vulnerable, helpless little members.”
On June 25, Shawnee County District Court Judge Larry Hendricks issued an injunction that barred Kansas’ first-in-nation law [Senate Bill 95] from going into effect July 1. The judge’s order will remain in effect while the state appeals the ruling. The full state court of appeals will hold a hearing on the matter December 9.
Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
