On abortion: Oklahoma Abortion Law struck down + thoughts

Score one for the choicers — for now. Oklahoma County District Court struck down an abortion law ruling that the law addressed too many topics, and therefore violated the Oklahoma constitution’s “single-subject” rule.

But what galls me? This shit right here:

One of the most contentious parts of the law was the creation of a Web site whereby any woman who had had an abortion would have been required to provide personal details pertaining to her choice, including her relationships, financial situation and motivation for seeking an abortion.

Because all women who seek abortions are careless sluts, right? They’re not, after all, women who are be in committed relationships with men who are having trouble finding steady, living-wage employment. Or women who may be in an abusive relationship. Or women whose health may be at risk. Or women whose contraception failed. Or women who miscalculated her menstrual cycle and now finds herself in a position where she can’t afford, and isn’t really sure she wants to have a child.

That’s the kind of shit that just causes women to, for example, drive 8 hours to a neighboring state to get an abortion. Like it or not, whether you want to admit it or not, when a woman is pregnant and doesn’t want to be, there is very little she won’t do or try in order to terminate her pregnancy.

Don’t believe me? In Mexico, where abortion is illegal almost everywhere, an estimated 845,000 abortions (out of roughly 28 million women aged 15-49) still take place.

The question should not be “Should abortion be legal?” The questions should be “Do we believe that women should be required to risk death or injury if they do not wish to carry a pregnancy to term?” and “Do we believe that women who conceive should be forced to risk their health and safety to give birth?”

I will end with this point from a 2009 Guttmacher Institute study:

Of the approximately 42 million abortions that do occur worldwide, almost half are performed by unskilled individuals, in environments that do not meet minimum medical standards or both. Virtually all of these unsafe abortions take place in the developing world, where the unmet need for contraception remains high and very restrictive abortion laws often are the norm.

In the developed and developing world alike, antiabortion advocates and policymakers refuse to acknowledge the facts that abortion’s legal status has much less to do with how often it occurs than with whether or not it is safe, and that the surest way to actually reduce the incidence of abortion is to reduce the incidence of unintended pregnancy. While they debate, obfuscate and insist on legal prohibitions, the consequences for women, their families and society as a whole continue to be severe and undeniable.

• Related: An Overview Of Abortion In The United States