U.S. District Judge John deGravelles in January granted a preliminary injunction sought by abortion providers, finding the law violated the constitutional right to an abortion established by the Supreme Court in 1973.
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The Louisiana Coalition for Reproductive Freedom is a statewide alliance of organizations and individuals that work to ensure sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice for all people through advocacy, law and policy change, and movement building. He noted the number of medical abortions in Texas has increased relative to surgical abortions – the opposite of the national trend. Such a ruling would be a huge victory for supporters of abortion rights since the two landmark cases: Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973, and Casey, which set the current rules for restrictions in 1992.
On Feb. 22, the federal appeals court in New Orleans stayed that ruling, allowing the law to go into effect.
A decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, is expected by late June. This means that there is a possibility that the court could end up in a 4 to 4 split.
WASHINGTON, La., March 5 (UPI) – The Supreme Court temporarily blocked Louisiana’s new abortion law which would have closed three of the four remaining abortion clinics in the state. Prior to the ruling, two clinics were already forced to close while another faced imminent closure.
Jeff Landry, Louisiana’s attorney general, said in a statement that “we disagree with the Court’s unexplained decision”, adding that he would “continue to defend Louisiana’s pro-life and pro-woman laws”. “We remain confident that we will prevail on the merits”, Landry said.
Abortion rights advocates hope Friday’s vote for the clinics in Louisiana could signal that he will also provide a decisive fifth vote in favor of the Texas clinics.
The Louisiana law, like the one in Texas, requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Furthermore, privileges can be very hard to obtain due to individual hospital policies or biases against abortion providers for reasons not related to the doctors’ qualifications.
The appeals court was willing to let both states enforce their admitting-privileges laws.
On Wednesday it considered a challenge to Texas abortion regulations, which require that hospital-like standards are met at abortion clinics.
The majority of justices said the court’s action on Friday was “consistent” with the June 2015 halt of the Texas surgical-center provision, the second time the court suspended that part of the Texas law.
Opponents of the laws said half the 40 clinics that were open in Texas before the 2013 law closed as a result.
“If that right still does retain real substance, then this law can not stand. The burdens it imposes, the obstacles, are far beyond anything that this Court has countenanced”.
Writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, Judge Jennifer Elrod rejected the clinics’ argument that the appeals court should heed earlier Supreme Court action preventing Texas from fully implementing the regulations.
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The move will allow two of the state’s four clinics to reopen.
