'We Cannot Overstate the Harm This Decision Will Have': Oklahoma Judge Upholds Ban on Common Abortion Procedure

The Center for Reproductive Rights on Friday announced its intention to keep fighting after an Oklahoma court upheld a ban on a common abortion procedure.

“We cannot overstate the harm this decision will have on women in Oklahoma,” said Julie Rikelman, litigation director at the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), in a statement. CRR filed the suit on behalf of Tulsa Women’s Clinic to have the law stricken down.

Oklahoma County District Judge Cindy Truong’s ruling upholds House Bill 1721, a 2015 law that “targets a procedure known as dilation and evacuation (D and E), which is frequently used during second-trimester abortions,” as Rewire‘s legislative tracker noted.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has called D and E “evidence-based and medically preferred because it results in the fewest complications for women compared to alternative procedures.” Efforts to ban any particular type of procedure, the group said, “represent legislative interference at its worst: doctors will be forced, by ill-advised, unscientifically motivated policy, to provide lesser care to patients. This is unacceptable.”