HB 1595 was introduced by Sen. Todd Lamb, R-Edmond, and Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Tulsa. It is also know as the Statistical Reporting of Abortion Act. Physicians who do abortions will be required to report certain information to the state's Department of Health, including the mother's age, marital status, education level, number of prior pregnancies, reason for the abortion, method of abortion, method of payment, type of medical health insurance coverage and relationship with the father, as well as the cost of the abortion and whether an ultrasound was given.

The law also directs the department to publish annual abortion reports on its website and to ensure compliance with the provisions of the act by conducting periodic inspections of places where abortions are performed.

"It is unfortunate, even in this enlightened age of women, that many cultures here and abroad favor males over females. All over the world, millions of females are missing due to sex selection abortions," Mary Spaulding Balch of the National Right to Life Committee said in a statement. "We congratulate Oklahoma for taking this courageous stand against this invidious discrimination against women by banning the practice of sex selection abortions in Oklahoma."

Note that Balch said selective abortion of baby girls isn't only happening in Asia but in the U.S. as well.

According to the Boston Globe, a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that examined the ratio of boys to girls born to Asian-American families in the U.S. demonstrated couples who have a girl first become increasingly likely to abort future daughters to get the son they want.

After having two girls, the study found the likelihood of the third child being a son leaped 50 percent higher than the norm, evidence, the authors wrote, "of sex selection, most likely at the prenatal stage."

Even though a Zogby Poll that showed that 86 percent of Americans believe sex-selective abortions should be illegal, the paper pointed out that they're not.

According to WND, a spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee said that Oklahoma is now one of only three states that ban the practice. The other two are Pennsylvania and Illinois. The spokesperson couldn't confirm that the Illinois law is in effect.

"In many countries, parents are allowed to create genetically designed babies, including self-selection of the child's sex," said Rep. Sullivan in a statement. "This legislation would restrict that practice in Oklahoma and require reporting of the abortions that are occurring."

Critics of the law argue that gathering the information will be costly and doesn't exempt victims of rape or incest.

"We're going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, most of it for data," state Rep. Ryan Kiesel, D-Seminole, told the paper. "Have any of you looked at the form doctors already fill out? I have. There is already a questionnaire."

But Rep. Sullivan insists that if abortions are to be kept as rare as possible, the reporting is necessary.

"The reporting will allow us to know exactly how many abortions are being performed in Oklahoma and why they are occurring so we can possibly adjust policy to further reduce the number of abortions in our state," Sullivan said.

Tony Lauinger, director of Oklahomans for Life, told LifeNews.com that abortion advocates often talk about how they want to make abortion "safe, legal and rare" and that this law "is needed to measure the accuracy of that claim."

HB 1595 passed easily through the Oklahoma Congress, by a vote of 35-9 in the Senate and 88-6 in the House. Abortionists will be required to begin reporting the new information in 2011.

The abortion reporting portion of the bill is the "most comprehensive reporting law in the nation," Balch said, "Hopefully the information gleaned from this reported information will help us determine some of the reasons women think they need to kill their babies so that we might address those needs and save lives."

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