State Court Deems Law Wide Attack on Abortion
The court has not decided a major abortion case since 2007, when it upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.
The new case, Cline v. Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice, No. 12-1094, concerns a state law that restricted the use of abortion-inducing drugs to a protocol approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The agency in 2000 approved the use of mifepristone, sometimes called RU-486, to induce abortions in combination with a second drug.
Since then, the state court said Tuesday in an unsigned opinion, additional research has refined the proper use of mifepristone, calling for a lower dose, fewer visits to clinics and use later in the pregnancy. “Ninety-six percent of medication abortions in the United States are now provided according to a regimen different from the one described in mifepristone’s F.D.A.-approved label,” the court said.