- U.S. Federal Judge Ivan Lemelle issued a permanent injunction today against Louisiana's attempt to impose restrictions on abortion providers by equating abortion facilities with ambulatory surgical centers. Ruling on summary judgment, Judge Lemelle agreed with the plaintiffs that abortion facilities are not the same as ambulatory surgical centers and should therefore not be forced to submit to their regulatory requirements. Specifically, he noted that abortion facilities do not use registered nurses, which is included in the State's definition of an ambulatory surgical center.
On July 2, 1999, Governor Mike Foster signed a law into effect forcing abortion facilities to comply with the licensing requirements for ambulatory surgical centers, an impossible task that would have forced abortion providers to stop performing abortions or risk criminal prosecution. A preliminary injunction has been in effect since August 1999 when the Court found that it was likely that plaintiffs would succeed in showing that the law violated the right to privacy.
"Today's ruling is one more victory for the health and safety of women in Louisiana" said Linda Rosenthal, a Staff Attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy organization representing the plaintiffs. "The State can no longer trample on women's constitutional rights by imposing unnecessary regulations on abortion facilities."
Currently, abortion clinics are subject to the same laws and restrictions applicable to doctor's offices where surgeries are performed. If the State were allowed to treat abortion facilities as ambulatory surgical facilities, the abortion facilities would have to make costly changes in their staffing, physical plant, equipment, and administrative procedures, without any resultant benefit to the health of women receiving abortions.
Laws placing excessive regulatory burdens on abortion clinics have been called Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers (TRAP) by the Center for Reproductive Rights. In 1992, a federal judge in South Carolina found TRAP regulations in that state to be unconstitutional and ruled that they could not be enforced.
Plaintiffs in Causeway Medical Suite v. Foster, including Causeway Medical Suite , Bossier City Medical Suite, and Hope Medical Group for Women, are represented by Bebe Anderson and Linda Rosenthal of the Center for Reproductive Rights, and cooperating counsel William Rittenberg of the New Orleans firm Rittenberg and Samuel.
