Jackson Free Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a law requiring abortion clinics to have doctors who have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of their facility.

The court ruled that measure, which requires doctors with admitting privileges to be present for abortions, violates both the U.S. and Oklahoma Constitutions. Republican Gov. Mary Fallin signed it into law in 2014, but courts had blocked it from going into effect. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year struck down a similar provision in Texas.

"It creates an undue burden on a woman's access to abortion, violating protected rights under our federal Constitution," Oklahoma Justice Joseph Watt wrote.

The court also found the law also violates the Oklahoma Constitution's ban on measures containing more than one subject, a practice known as logrolling. The law included "12 separate and unrelated subsections," the court said.

The ruling overturns a lower court's decision in February that upheld the law.

The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the law on behalf of Dr. Larry Burns, a Norman physician who performs nearly half of Oklahoma's abortions. Burns has said he applied for admitting privileges at hospitals in the Oklahoma City area but was turned down. The other clinic in the state that does abortions is in Tulsa.

"Today's decision is a victory for Oklahoma women and another rebuke to politicians pushing underhanded laws that attack a woman's constitutionally guaranteed right to safe, legal abortion," Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but previously has said that bill was passed to protect the health and safety of Oklahoma women.