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Oklahoma County District Judge Strikes Down Law Restricting Abortion-Inducing Drugs

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An Oklahoma District County judge struck down a law Monday morning banning certain uses of abortion-inducing drugs. The hearing came after the State Supreme Court blocked the measure from taking effect last year. 

The state of Oklahoma argued the law would ban the off-label methods of abortion-inducing drugs because there were "safer” alternatives. But the judge called the special law unconstitutional and said the state was singling out the medication because it is used for abortions.

Autumn Katz is from the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights. She says the state’s argument wasn’t about a woman’s safety.

“What this law was really about was interfering with the practice of medicine and making it more difficult for women to access safe abortion services,” Katz said.

Katz says many doctors performing early-term abortions employ the off-label methods of the drugs, which the American Medical Association has called safer and more effective than the FDA’s on-label methods. 

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