Oklahoma's despotic new abortion law

A couple of days ago Oklahoma passed two laws that force all women who want an abortion in the state to listen to an ultrasound of their fetus before the abortion is performed, and even more egregiously, allow doctors to lie to their patients about the state of the patient's pregnancy if they believed that the information would lead to the patient performing an abortion. How anyone can defend this, especially the second part, I have no idea. I'm not going to get into the abortion debate in this post, but the illegality and immorality of these laws is amazing. Starting with the second law, Oklahoma is, in essence, telling doctors that they should perform their jobs wrong. Am I the only one who recognizes how ridiculous that is? The effects this law would have are chilling. Patients could no longer trust their doctors at all to tell the truth about their pregnancy. Every Oklahoman woman will now, for the entire length of their pregnancy, have a little doubt in the back of their mind about the health of their baby. There will be no peace of mind for an Oklahoman mother. Furthermore, if it turns out that a couple is going to have a deformed baby, they will now not know about this until the baby is actually born. The emotional maelstrom that this will cause for thousands of Oklahoman families is wrong and unfair. And what if the baby is so deformed that it does not survive outside the woman's body? Is it okay to allow doctors to not inform families of this devastating possibility? This law could have broad-reaching economic effects as well. Many who live close enough to Oklahoma's border might decide to go to special pregnancy clinics outside of Oklahoma because they cannot have peace of mind with an Oklahoma doctor. That's tens of millions of dollars that could be leaving the state.

Moving on to the first law, it's hard to dispute this part without getting into the whole abortion debate, which I refuse to do. But I will say this; this sounds an awful lot like what the southern states did to get around the 15th amendment (giving blacks the right to vote) back in the early 1900s. In fact, it's the exact same strategy. Both groups were saying 'The act itself cannot now be taken away, so we'll make it as hard as possible to commit the act, while still allowing it to be legal.' It has changed from poll taxes to ultrasound hearings, but the spirit is the same. Furthermore, do the wonderful congressman of Oklahoma realize the scarring effect this could have on a family? Abortion is not an easy decision to make, and to require the parents to listen to the babies heartbeat right before performing the procedure is grotesque and macabre (I can't wait for the comments saying that this is why the procedure shouldn't be performed in the first place).

Luckily, there is no real way this law will pass muster in a court when it is sued for its illegality. The law requires a woman to have an operation performed on her body (the ultrasound) that she does not want. The government has no power to do that. It also requires the doctor to perform the procedure, which it also doesn't have the power to do. Furthermore, I'm unsure, but I bet there are federal laws requiring doctors to disclose all information to their patients. This law would go against that, and federal law always supersedes state laws. The number of ways this law is unconstitutional make it highly improbable that it will stay on the books for long.

So can any of you find any way to defend this law? I will not engage in any debates about abortion, but you're free to comment whatever you want.