Opinion ID: 3181538
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Is H.B. 2684 a Special or General Law?

Text: ¶24 We must identify the subject the law seeks to classify (the class) to determine whether H.B. 2684 is a special or general law. Elias v. City of Tulsa , 1965 OK 164, ¶ 9, 408 P.2d 517, 519. A statute relating to all persons or things of a class is a general law; one relating to particular persons or things of a class is a special law. Reynolds , 1988 OK 88, ¶ 14, 760 P.2d at 822. Where a class is underinclusive, the statute is a special law. Id. ¶ 21, 760 P.2d at 824. ¶25 In Reynolds , the Court first identified the overarching subject classified by the legislation--limitations of civil actions. Id. ¶ 18, 760 P.2d at 823. The Reynolds legislation carved out special treatment for actionable medical malpractice claims which cannot be discovered with reasonable diligence until after three years. Id. As the statute carved out a subclass apart from all statutes on limitations of civil actions, it was underinclusive and a special law. Id. ¶26 The Plaintiffs argue H.B. 2684 is a special law in two ways: 1) the law classifies the drugs Mifeprex and misoprostol only for off-label use in ending a pregnancy from any other off-label use of the drugs; and 2) the law classifies only women who seek and doctors who provide abortions from all other women seeking or doctors providing medical care. The district court agreed with the Plaintiffs, ruling that the general class must be all FDA-approved drugs or all FDA drugs approved under Subpart H. The State argues that H.B. 2684 is a general law that seeks to classify all abortion-inducing drugs. ¶27 H.B. 2684 incorporates 16 provisions of legislative findings, each related to the use of abortion-inducing drugs. H.B. 2684, ch. 121, 2014 Okla. Sess. Laws 375-77, § 1-729a(A)(1)-(16). We have already construed H.B. 2684 to regulate only Mifeprex, misoprostol, and methotrexate and only when used to induce abortions. Just as the legislation in Reynolds was a special law because it classified a smaller class than all limitations on civil actions, so too is H.B. 2684 as it classifies Mifeprex, misoprostol, and methotrexate only when used as abortion-inducing drugs. We agree with the Plaintiffs that the subject of H.B. 2684 does not cover the use of these drugs in any other instance or any other drugs; therefore, H.B. 2684 is a special law. According to Reynolds , it is subject to further scrutiny.