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An appeals court on Wednesday upheld a Louisiana law that will result in the closure of three of the state’s four abortion clinics, according to reports.
The new regulation requires that abortion providers have admitting privileges to a nearby hospital – something that abortion advocates say is hard to come by.
According to the Washington Post, the court’s ruling means that two clinics will immediately be forced to close, since doctors at these clinics have been unable to get admitting rights to local hospitals. The report adds that the other two clinics share an abortion doctor who does have these privileges, but one will probably be forced to close.
The Center for Reproductive Rights has vowed to fight the regulation as high as the Supreme Court, which is already set to hear a similar case on March 2 concerning a 2013 Texas law that also requires abortion clinics to have admitting privileges to hospitals no more than 30 miles away. The law is expected to shut down more than half of Texas’s 18 remaining abortion clinics.
Texas and Louisiana are only two out of a host of states that have passed similar legislation following the highly publicized murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell in 2011. Gosnell, who ran the Women’s Medical Society in Philadelphia, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar died at his clinic following an abortion.
Gosnell was also convicted of the murder of three babies born alive after botched abortion attempts, as well as 21 felony counts of illegal abortions after 24 weeks and 211 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s 24-hour informed consent law.
Pro-life advocates and lawmakers have pointed to the case as a reason why abortion clinics must have admitting privileges at a local hospital in order to prevent women from being irreparably harmed or dying following an abortion procedure. The grisly findings and blatantly unsanitary conditions at Gosnell's clinic have also inpsired states to pass stricter satefy and health regulations on abortion clinics.