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UPDATED: Oklahoma Republicans Demand Abortion Disclosures (VIDEO)
By Megan Carpentier

Image via gastia.com on FlickrStarting November 1, women in Oklahoma who have an abortion will see their medical records appear online, in order to enable more effective harassment of women by anti-abortion forces.

The new law requires that every woman who obtains an abortion in the state disclose to the Secretary of State (who will post it online) the following information.

1.Date of abortion
2.County in which abortion performed
3.Age of mother
4.Marital status of mother (married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)
5.Race of mother
6.Years of education of mother (specify highest year completed)
7.State or foreign country of residence of mother
8.Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
9.Number of pregnancies that ended in live births
10.Number of pregnancies that ended in miscarriages
11.Number of pregnancies that ended in induced abortions
The only thing women won't have to reveal is their names--but, if you are a woman in a small community in Oklahoma, your neighbors (and anti-abortion forces) will likely be able to easily identify you anyway. That's probably the point.

The legislature doesn't have any compelling public health reason to collect the data they seek from their citizens who choose to have the most common medical procedure in the United States--note, for instance, women are not require to disclose if the abortion was deemed medically necessary. But anti-abortion forces--like Operation Rescue, which moved over to Oklahoma after one of its supporters assassinated Dr. George Tiller in Kansas--are well known for publicizing personally identifiable information of women seeking abortions or employees of clinics that provide abortion services, and using that information to harass and intimidate (and, in the case of Tiller assassin Scott Roeder, kill) those people using or providing abortion services regardless of the circumstances. The only reason this information is being demanded of women is so that the anti-abortion movement and its political patrons can use it for political purposes.

Apparently, in Oklahoma, "small government" Republicans are only interested in keeping government out of the private lives of men, and those women who make the personal health choices with which they agree.