Thank You, Judicial Branch”¦

On Tuesday, an Oklahoma judge struck down the ludicrous and archaic law ultra sound abortion law. From the Joke:

A judge Tuesday struck down a controversial state abortion law requiring ultrasounds on grounds one legislator called a technicality.

Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson ruled the law unconstitutional, finding it violated a requirement that legislation deal with a single subject...

The most controversial aspect of the law was a requirement that an abortion doctor or medical technician give a pregnant woman an ultrasound at least an hour before the procedure and display the images of the unborn baby where the woman could see them.

The law required the doctor or technician also to describe what the woman was seeing, including if the fetus' heart was beating.

Wow.  Maybe the whole "single subject" deal is a legitimate excuse to strike down the law, or maybe Judge Vicki Robertson is one those mysterious (and mythical) "activist" judges we are always hearing about. Regardless, who the hell cares? The judicial system has worked! We now have one less cruel, meaningless, archaic bill on the books. Hooray!

Anyway, I know we've mentioned this before, but for a legislature that allegedly wants to keep government interference out of our lives and medical decisions, they sure did a good job of passing laws that put the government right in the middle of one of the most personal and difficult medical decisions imaginable. Normally, you would call a group like that "Hypocrites." But here in Oklahoma, we call just it the Republican controlled Legislature.

It will be interesting to see how the legislature reacts to this "defeat" in the next legislative session. The judge's decision is already being challenged, so they may not have to do anything.    Maybe if the appeal works they'll then do something productive like make insurance companies provide coverage for autism.  I doubt it, though.  They'll probably just force physicians to recite passages from Leviticus before performing physical examinations or just ban erotic nurse fantasies form hospitals. Whatever they do, it won't surprise me.