Oklahoma lost another round in its effort to restrict abortions when the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday declined to hear an appeal in a case that would force women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound first . The justices , without comment , refused to accept the state 's appeal over HB 2780 , which would require healthcare providers to perform an ultrasound scan before terminating a woman 's pregnancy . Lower state courts found the law unconstitutional . Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said those judges did not give proper legal weight to previous high court rulings allowing some regulation and restriction on abortions . The new law mandated that pregnant women seeking an abortion be given the chance to view the ultrasound image and be given a medical description , including `` the dimensions of the embryo or fetus , the presence of cardiac activity , if present and viewable , and the presence of external members and internal organs , if present and viewable . '' Neither the woman nor her doctor would be punished or penalized if she refused to look at those images , but the procedure , performed either vaginally or abdominally , and the explanation would be required . State lawmakers supporting the legislation said the ultrasound requirement was designed to allow women to make an `` informed decision '' before undergoing an abortion . Abortion rights groups objected to the Oklahoma statute . `` Oklahoma 's unusual law imposes serious burdens on a woman 's decision whether to terminate a pregnancy , '' said the Center for Reproductive Rights , which filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to stay out of the case . `` It is difficult to imagine a requirement more physically invasive than the state-mandated insertion of a medical device into one 's body even when the patient and the doctor think it unnecessary . '' The U.S. high court last week dismissed an Oklahoma appeal on a separate state law limiting abortions performed with medicine instead of surgery . That law would have regulated the ability of doctors to prescribe a medication regime -- using RU-486 pills -- to terminate early pregnancies , and make it a crime to deviate from the federal government-approved dosage and time limits on the drugs . But many physicians , backed by abortion rights supporters , say they routinely induce medical abortions through a combination of drugs they determine is simpler , safer , and less expensive than the current federal protocols on the use of abortion drugs . This was the first of several restrictive abortion laws nationwide to get a recent review by the Supreme Court . A federal appeals court last month allowed a similar law from Texas on medical abortions to go into effect . But a coalition of abortion rights groups immediately asked the Supreme Court for an emergency injunction to block that law 's enforcement . The justices could rule on that request as soon as Tuesday . The Oklahoma ultrasound case is Pruitt v. Nova Health Systems ( 12-1170 ) . The pending Texas case is Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas Surgical Health Services v. Abbott , Texas Attorney General ( 12A452 ) .
This is the second abortion law Oklahoma has had shot down recently . The Supreme Court justices refused to hear the appeal on sonagram requirement . Justices could rule soon on injunction request for Texas abortion law .