The Oklahoma state Supreme Court determined on Tuesday that a "partial right to abortion" is enshrined in its state constitution when it comes to saving the life of the mother.
The case in question was brought jointly by abortion providers and reproductive rights groups and challenged state laws that were approved after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer. The U.S. Supreme Court returned the topic of abortion back to the individual states.
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The state Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, struck down a law that said a woman could only have an abortion if the mother's life was already in danger because of a current medical emergency.
The five justices that made up the majority pointed to the constitutional provision that reads: "All persons have the inherent right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the enjoyment of the gains of their own industry," claiming the provision "stands as the basis for protecting a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy in order to save her life."
When it comes to an inherent right to life, the justices defined it as: "A woman has an inherent right to choose to terminate her pregnancy if at any point in the pregnancy, the woman’s physician has determined to a reasonable degree of medical certainty or probability that the continuation of the pregnancy will endanger the woman’s life due to the pregnancy itself or due to a medical condition that the woman is either currently suffering from or likely to suffer from during the pregnancy."
The justices added that "absolute certainty" of the death of the mother is not necessary, but it needs to be more than a "mere possibility or speculation."
Justices Yvonne Kauger, James R. Winchester, James E. Edmondson, Douglas L. Combs, and Noma Gurich made up the majority, while Chief Justice John Kane IV and Vice Chief Justice Dustin P. Rowe led the dissent, along with Justices Richard Darby and Dana Kuehn, according to the Oklahoman.
The dissenting opinion said that there was no law in the state constitution that specifically related to abortion.
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“There is no expressed or implied right to abortion enshrined in the Oklahoma Constitution," Kane wrote in the dissent. "In interpreting our Constitution, this court must guard against the innate human temptation to confuse what is provided in the Oklahoma Constitution with what one wishes were provided.”
Four of the majority were appointed by a Democratic governor, while all four of the dissenters were appointed by Republican governors. Winchester was the only Republican appointee to side with the majority.