Lift Louisiana Applauds Recent Ruling on Abortion Restrictions

This week, a federal district court permanently blocked Louisiana’s Texas-style clinic shutdown law, citing the Supreme Court’s recent historic ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v Hellerstedt.

The Center for Reproductive Rights challenged this law after it was passed and signed by Governor Bobby Jindal in June 2014. The law forced any doctor who provides abortion care to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital. This law threatens to close two of the three remaining abortion clinics in the state. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights:

If the majority of Louisiana’s clinics were to close, the closest provider of safe and legal abortion for many women in the state would have been in Jackson, Mississippi, a clinic that is only open due to a court order.  

Despite the sweeping nature of Whole Woman’s Health, states, including Louisiana, continued to defend their clinic shutdown laws months after the Supreme Court ruling.

The Center for Reproductive Rights is also currently challenging every single abortion restriction Louisiana passed in 2016, a case filed within one week of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Whole Woman’s Health.  None of those restrictions are currently in effect due to an agreement between the plaintiffs and the state.  

Louisiana is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars defending abortion restriction in court as a time when the legislature is debating cutting funding for safety-net programs that support poor and working families. It's time our elected officials got their priorities straight.