The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that two bills banning abortions are unconstitutional.
The state's high court ruled Oklahoma's abortion bans passed last year are too restrictive and vague for doctors. Those laws made abortion illegal, except in a QUOTE “medical emergency.” It was unclear to justices and doctors across the state what exactly that means.
Tamya Cox-Toure is the ACLU of Oklahoma Executive Director. She says the ruling gives further guidance on when Oklahomans can receive care.
"However, because of our pre-Roe abortion bans, Oklahoma does not have full access to abortion care, even in light of these laws being struck down as unconstitutional," said Cox-Toure.
A 1910 law prohibiting abortion is still in place. It only allows the procedure if it will save a mother’s life – but doesn’t have the medical emergency requirement.
More Oklahoma State Department of Education employees are taking legal action over employment issues. Now, three former employees are taking their cases to court.
Cheryl McGee served as the executive director of school based mental health, and Matt Colwell served as the executive director of school success. Both filed lawsuits claiming they were wrongly fired for sharing information from the agency.
The department sent out an email Thursday threatening employees with termination if they were found to have leaked information. A state official later posted on social media different versions of the email were sent to employees to track who leaked them.
Another employee, Janessa Bointy, served as a school counselor specialist for about two and a half years. According to the filing, Bointy spoke about adolescent mental health during the public comment section of an Edmond Public Schools School Board meeting, which took place in the wake of a student suicide. Bointy has four children enrolled at Edmond. She was fired for allegedly breaching the agency’s confidentiality agreement and violating its media policy.
A spokesperson for State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ office provided a statement, “Contrary to public servants, these individuals are political activists who have no business being funded by Oklahoma taxpayers.”
An Oklahoma City Public Schools teacher was fired after allegedly physically abusing a student in February.
The Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to terminate Webster Middle School special education teacher Stephen Gainor earlier this week.
Gainor is accused of holding an 11-year-old student against the floor for more than three minutes. The school’s assistant principal witnessed the incident and told Gainor to stop multiple times. Other administrators reported seeing Gainor sitting on top of the student.
Gainor was later placed on administrative leave. The school’s principal recommended Gainor’s employment be terminated in April.
Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed legislation that would have extended tobacco and vehicle tag compacts between the state and the tribal nations.
The move comes after the legislature negotiated a deal to extend them through 2024 in one of the last days of the regular session.
It's now in the hands of lawmakers on whether they will return to override the veto.
In a statement Choctaw Chief Gary Batton said that these compacts provide important benefits to the people of Oklahoma.
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