Two days ago the Oklahoma legislature—overriding a veto by Democratic Governor Brad Henry—instituted two new abortion laws that require women to pay for an ultrasound before getting an abortion and prevent women from suing doctors who withhold information about birth defects while the fetus is in utero. According to the NYTimes article, "Oklahoma’s new law says that the monitor must be placed where the woman can see it and that she must listen to a detailed description of the fetus," including the heart, organs, and limbs (but remember: doctors are free to fabricate those details if they choose). Neither law includes an exception for the victims of rape or incest.

Oklahoma now has the strictest abortion laws in the country. Congrats, fellas!

And there's more to come from the state:

Two other anti-abortion bills are still working their way through the Legislature and are expected to pass. One would force women to fill out a lengthy questionnaire about their reasons for seeking an abortion; statistics based on the answers would then be posted online. The other restricts insurance coverage for the procedures.

This includes banning state insurance plans from covering abortions and severely restricting private insurance coverage.

To recap: You wind up pregnant in Oklahoma. You need an abortion. First you're forced to pay for an ultrasound ($300-$400), then forced to watch and listen as a doctor describes the health of the fetus (or lies about it. Whatever!). Then you're forced to fill out an invasive 38-part questionnaire that advertises all of your personal information online, making it easy to identify you should you live in a small town (questions include: age, race, level of education, marital status, number of previous pregnancies—including how many were aborted and how many were carried to term, the county in which the abortion was performed, the woman's reason for the abortion, and her method of payment). Then you'll be forced to pay for your abortion, without the aid of insurance.

I wish Oklahoma was a backwater anomaly. I wish smart women could just shrug their shoulders and move on to more progressive states, but such states are becoming fewer and farther between.

Two weeks ago, Nebraska outlawed abortions performed after 20 weeks gestation.

And via Politico:

This year alone, the [Center for Reproductive Rights] has filed lawsuits against six abortion-related laws—two in Oklahoma, two in Alaska, and others in North Dakota and Arizona—a caseload that Northup describes as “higher than we’ve seen since the late 1990s. It’s a total uptick.” They’re currently tracking about 500 state-level bills that would curtail abortion rights.

Take Florida. Yesterday, Senate Republicans snuck in a last-minute amendment to a nursing home reform package that would force all pregnant women considering an abortion to first pay for an ultrasound (even in cases of rape). The bill will also require women to hear a description of the fetus—unless they can prove they have been raped or are a victim of domestic violence by providing a copy of a police report, restraining order, or medical record. In addition, it would ban nearly all private insurance companies from paying for abortions, coverage that currently is included in more than 85 percent of all insurance policies, according to the article.

More states are attempting to put the burden of sex—both consensual and forced—on women. They're risking their constituents' health by making abortions unaffordable and needlessly traumatic.

What amazes me is that they're succeeding.