OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) An Oklahoma judge on Friday upheld a ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure in what abortion rights proponents decried as a rogue decision that will threaten the reproductive rights of women throughout the state.
Oklahoma County District Judge Cindy Truong ruled from the bench following arguments over the ban approved by the states Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law in 2015. The law would prevent the use of instruments used in dilation and evacuation procedures commonly performed in the second trimester. Supporters of the ban refer to the method as dismemberment abortions.
Its essentially a back-door ban on abortion itself, said Julie Rikelman, director of litigation for the Center for Reproductive Rights, a New York-based abortion rights group that challenged Oklahomas law. What it bans is the procedure thats the standard of care for abortion after approximately 14 weeks.
