Oklahoma Health Board Approves Parental Consent For Abortion Form; Enforcement Procedures Unclear

It is unclear how a consent form approved last week by the Oklahoma State Board of Health for the state's law requiring parental consent for minors seeking abortion will be enforced and which agency will enforce it, the Tulsa World reports. Under the law, which took effect Nov. 1, a parent or guardian is required to sign a consent form, which physicians will be required to keep for five years, before a minor undergoes an abortion. According to Linda Meek, executive administrator for Reproductive Services of Tulsa, girls who feel they would be harmed by seeking parental consent for an abortion can seek a judicial bypass (Riggs, Tulsa World, 11/13). The law, which Gov. Brad Henry (D) signed in May, also allocates funds to organizations that provide pregnant women with antiabortion counseling and support services; makes it a separate offense to kill a fetus during a crime against a pregnant woman; requires physicians to inform women seeking abortion at 20 weeks' gestation or later that the fetus might feel pain during the procedure and that anesthesia could be administered; and gives women the option of seeing a sonogram of her fetus prior to undergoing an abortion (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/25).

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