WOMEN SEEKING abortions in the US state of Oklahoma are to be forced to reveal an array of personal information, such as the state of their relationships, how many children they have and their race, which will be posted on an official website.
Abortion rights groups say the new law is intended to intimidate women because, although it does not require them to reveal their names, other information to be made public will sometimes be enough to identify them.
The move, which takes effect on November 1st, comes after a judge struck down a law that would have forced women to undergo an ultrasound and to listen to a doctor’s description of the embryo or foetus before a termination.
Abortion rights groups have filed a lawsuit to try to block the new law, which requires women seeking abortions to provide doctors with answers to 34 questions including their age, marital status and education levels, as well as the number of previous pregnancies and abortions. Women are required to reveal their relationship with the father and the reason for the abortion.
Doctors must pass the information on to the Oklahoma health department, which will post it on a public website.
Jennifer Mondino, a lawyer for the Centre for Reproductive Rights, said the reporting requirements were intended to “make women more nervous about going to [abortion] doctors”.
“The intent of this law is to further restrict access to abortions in Oklahoma,” she said.
“There are a number of states that have a reporting requirement but not as broad and detailed as in Oklahoma. It’s very unusual to consider putting such detail about patients on a website.”
Oklahoma was a state with a small population, Ms Mondino said, and “questions about race, number of children, other details, can be used to identify a patient. There’s a trend in Oklahoma, every year putting out new laws intended to restrict women’s access to abortions and to make it harder for doctors to provide them,” she said.
Doctors face prosecution and loss of their medical licences for failing to provide the state with the required information.
Ms Mondino said that would make doctors hesitant to perform terminations for fear of unintentionally falling foul of the law.
“Anti-choice advocates in other states watch and see what happens in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has become a leader in this,” she said.
Two years ago, Oklahoma passed a law barring public funds from being used for abortions, with the exception of rape or incest.
The effect has been to prevent virtually all hospitals in the state from carrying out terminations because they are unable to prove that some part of the procedure has not been subsidised by public money.
Many hospitals had in any case stopped terminations under pressure from politicians and intimidation by anti-abortion groups. – (Guardian service)