Louisiana abortion rights activists are fighting restrictions on abortion providers proposed last December by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH).
Under the administration of Governor Bobby Jindal, the DDH last week issued a letter to Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast refusing to allow its new state of the art clinic in New Orleans to perform abortions on the legal “excuse” that it did not show a need for a new facility to perform abortions in Louisiana. In 2012, Jindal’s administration passed a state law requiring abortion clinics to show that there is need for another clinic before applying for a license.
“Governor Jindal’s has placed one obstacle after another in the way of Louisiana women seeking access to abortion or reproductive health services,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “When clinics are closed unnecessarily women’s health suffers—especially the health of low income women and young women.”
The New Orleans Abortion Fund (NOAF), together with the Feminist Majority Foundation, has planned a campaign to oppose the regulations, which endanger women’s health and safety. The FMF and NOAF released a petition demanding that the DHH rescind the regulations, which would place onerous restrictions on the five clinics that remain in Louisiana. FMF college campus activists will be circulating the petition throughout Louisiana.
The proposed restrictions are what are known as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws, and according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, are “medically unnecessary requirements designed to reduce access to abortion.” The regulations restrict a clinic’s ability to operate and provide clinics with little ability to adapt to unforeseen changes and circumstances – and what’s more troubling, they could cause confidentiality issues for both patients and staff.
Media Resources: New Orleans Abortion Fund 12/10/14; Feminist Newswire 1/15/15; The State 1/16/2015;
