BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Abortion rights supporters said Thursday that a rewrite of Louisiana's abortion clinic regulations was aimed at forcing clinics to close, as leaders in conservative Southern states continue to add new limitations to the procedure.
Critics of the 20-page revamp of clinic licensing standards packed a small public hearing room to oppose the regulation changes planned by Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration.
Ellie Schilling, a New Orleans lawyer representing the state's abortion clinics, said the new rules have unnecessary paperwork requirements, far-reaching operational regulations and limited ways for a clinic to appeal when its license is yanked.
"The regulations represent a vast overhaul of the regulatory framework to severely overregulate abortion providers in a targeted way that is burdensome and punitive," she said. "No other outpatient facility in the state is regulated in such a way."
Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals said the rewrite accounts for recent legislative changes in the last few years, while also clearly spelling out licensing requirements and staffing provisions for the facilities.
The changes "are intended to clarify regulations for providers, ensure the safety of Louisiana women and children and create a single place in Louisiana rule where all requirements are outlined," department spokeswoman Olivia Watkins said in a statement.
Louisiana's regulation rewrite comes as several Southern states have passed increasingly tougher restrictions on abortion in recent years.
A Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to be able to admit patients to a hospital within 30 miles is on hold while a federal lawsuit is pending. Opponents say it will shutter all five abortion clinics in the state.
Arkansas banned abortions after 12 weeks, though a judge has tossed out that law. Mississippi has an ongoing court challenge over an admitting privileges law similar to the one in dispute in Louisiana. Texas passed a requirement that abortion clinics have the same facilities as surgical centers.
This month, the Jindal administration told Planned Parenthood it wouldn't be able to perform abortion services at its new clinic under construction in New Orleans. The health department said the organization didn't demonstrate the need for another abortion facility in Louisiana. Planned Parenthood hasn't decided whether it will file a lawsuit.
Supporters of abortion rights contend that the regulations planned in Louisiana are the state's latest effort to add onerous, confusing and medically unnecessary restrictions for abortion clinics.
"These regulations do nothing to promote safety," said New Orleans pediatrician Julie Finger.
Schilling pointed to duplicative paperwork that must be filed in personnel and patient files, saying the rules make it difficult to know what is required for compliance. As an example, she pointed to a section of the proposed regulations that requires a clinic to document every "job skill" of every employee, place it in a personnel file and update the file with an annual evaluation to determine if each job skill has been met.
She said the clinics have small staffs with constantly changing job demands, and she said the job skill requirement could be used to determine a clinic has fallen short of state requirements.
"Based on all this overregulation, it's very easy then to cite clinics for deficiencies and it's very easy then to deprive them of their license. You can be deprived of your license if you're cited for any single deficiency," Schilling said.
The health department said the comments made Thursday would be taken under advisement along with written comments filed to the agency, before devising the final draft of the regulations slated to take effect later this year.