Abortion clinics required to have admitting privileges

Beginning Monday, Louisiana abortion clinics will be required to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, that after a Friday ruling from the New Orleans based 5^thCircuit Court of Appeals. Attorney General Jeff Landry says his office has been proud to defend the law that was passed in 2014, nearly unanimously, in the Louisiana Legislature.

“Everywhere else you go, in any other type of procedure, in a doctor’s office where you have in and out procedures such as that, those doctors are required to have admitting privileges.”

Act 620 was held up for years after the Supreme Court struck down a similar law in Texas in 2016. The 5^th Circuit in September determined the Louisiana law was different enough to warrant a rehearing.

So starting Monday, Landry says all Louisiana clinics must adhere to the law, or they could be shut down by the state.

“They could lose their license, their ability to operate, and now that we’ve won the case the responsibility for implementing the law shifts over the governor and his Department of Health.”

After five years of winding its way through the courts, Act 620 still may not be done facing legal challenges. There’s one appeal left, and that’s to the US Supreme Court. Landry says if that happens, they’re ready.

“That is always a possibility, and we know that we are fully prepared to continue to defend the law. We think we have done a great job laying out our case.”