The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled the Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act unconstitutional, ending a three-month battle to enact the controversial anti-choice legislation. Passed by the Oklahoma legislature in October of 2009, the law would require women seeking an abortion to answer nearly 40 different questions regarding her reasons for doing so, including invasive and personal questions that could be used to disclose a woman’s personal identity.

The law, which would have gone into effect on November 1, 2009 instead was put under a temporary restraining order while lawyers debated whether or not it was constitutional.  The Oklahoma constitution does not allow laws to address multiple subjects in one law, and the law in question combined four different anti-choice pieces of legislation, including a ban on sex-selective abortions.

“We are very pleased with today’s ruling,” said Jennifer Mondino, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “The government
has no business running a grand inquisition into the private lives of
Oklahoma women and wasting a quarter of a million dollars of tax
payers’ money in the process.” 

Anti-choice legislators have prepared for the possibility of the ruling, stating that they already have drafted single subject bills for each initiative addressed in the struck down law.