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View Full Version : Another Pro-Life Win, Louisiana Law is Upheld by Federal Court




Swordsmyth
09-29-2018, 12:58 AM
On Wednesday, a federal appeals court panel ruled that a Louisiana law which requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals does not violate women’s constitutional abortion rights.
In a 2-1 ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, judges said the Louisiana provision was different than one in Texas that had been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 known as Whole Woman’s Health.
Louisiana’s law does not impose the same “substantial burden” on women as the Texas law does. The ruling reversed a Baton-Rouge based federal judge’s ruling in the case and later ordered the lawsuit by opponents of the law to be dismissed, according to The National Post. (https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/louisianas-admitting-privileges-abortion-law-upheld)


“There is no evidence that any of the clinics will close as a result of the Act,” the appeals court said in its ruling.

“Almost all Texas hospitals required that for a doctor to maintain privileges there, he or she had to admit a minimum number of patients annually,” Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote in the opinion joined by Judge Edith Brown Clement. “Few Louisiana hospitals made that demand.”
The Texas law led to the closure of the majority of the state’s abortion clinics and the number of women who were forced to drive over 150 miles to seek abortions increased by 350%, the appeals court said.
Those who support the law said that abortion doctors need to have the ability to admit patients into a hospital within 30 miles in case of medical complications.
Opponents of the law argue that the law will result in one or two clinic closures and, eventually, a loss of access to abortion by 70% of the women who seek the procedure in Louisiana.

More at: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/another-pro-life-win-louisiana-law-is-upheld-by-federal-court/