Louisiana abortion clinics brace for Supreme Court ruling

All day, phones rang inside the tiny brick abortion clinic. Women from all over Louisiana, and from as far as Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi, called mostly with the same question: Was the center still taking appointments?

The clinic’s embattled administrator, Kathaleen Pittman, eyes red from lack of sleep, reassured them she had yet to cancel any consultations or procedures. Yet she could not promise anyone how long the center would remain open.

“We’re now down to two clinics and two physicians serving approximately 10,000 women across the state,” she said. “It’s just not sustainable.”

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday allowed a 2014 Louisiana law to take effect, requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

The decision immediately closed one of the state’s four abortion clinics, the Bossier City Medical Suite in Bossier City. Another, the Delta Clinic in Baton Rouge, remains open, but without any physicians who can perform abortions. It is referring patients to the Women’s Health Care Center in New Orleans.

The future of Shreveport’s Hope Medical Group for Women, a small clinic that performs the largest number of abortions in Louisiana, remains uncertain. The physician Pittman relied on most, who conducted two-thirds of its surgeries, does not have hospital admitting privileges. Only one physician, close to retirement age, is left to perform all of the clinic’s surgical abortions.

Pittman said the center is trying to take referrals from the clinic that closed. Its lone physician finished his surgeries at 9 p.m. Thursday.

“How long can you keep up with this, doc?” Pittman asked him. The physician, who runs a private practice in addition to working part time for the clinic, warned her long ago that he would find it impossible to take on an increased workload and harassment from anti-abortion campaigners.

“My heart aches,” Pittman said. “All we can do is hope and pray the Supreme Court intervenes.”

On March 2, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a Texas law similar to Louisiana’s that requires doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles clinics where they practice.

In the meantime, the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents four clinics in the Texas legal challenge and three clinics in Louisiana, plans to ask the Supreme Court to block the 5th Circuit’s Louisiana ruling while the justices consider whether such laws are constitutional.

The Supreme Court’s ruling, if it is decisive, would probably have a long-lasting effect on women’s access to abortion across Louisiana and much of the South, where restrictive laws have forced abortion clinics to close in the past decade. About half of Texas’ 40 abortion clinics have closed since a 2013 law required doctors to have hospital admitting privileges.

“This is a watershed moment in the battle for reproductive rights,” Nancy Northup, president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said Thursday.

Eight states in addition to Texas and Louisiana have introduced similar admission-privilege restrictions. In a sign that more could follow, 23 states including Louisiana signed an amicus brief in support of Texas in the Supreme Court case, arguing for states’ rights in regulating women’s health and safety.

“We are seeing ‘undue burden’ unfolding in real time in Louisiana, with women struggling to access the care they need and depend on,” Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. With Texas law requiring that women to wait up to 20 days for an abortion, she said, many were already traveling to states such as Louisiana. “Where will they go now?” she asked. “And where will Louisiana women turn?”

Supporters of such laws argue they are common-sense measures intended to protect women, providing them the security of knowing their doctor can admit a patient to a local hospital should there be complications.

“It’s not just about protecting the unborn child, but also the health of the woman,” said Benjamin Clapper, executive director of Louisiana Right to Life, a New Orleans-based non-profit. “These are ways to continue to ensure that the abortion industry is operating under the same standards other surgical centers are operating under.”

In Louisiana and nearby states, Pittman says, many women already face a heavy burden in securing abortions. After traveling hundreds of miles, some have to stay overnight, as the state requires a 24-hour waiting period between counseling and the procedure. Factor in the cost of a hotel, child care and time off work, she said, and “it’s just not doable for a lot of patients.”

Since Pittman began working at the clinic in 1992, it’s been attacked by toxic acid and a bomb.

“We’ve always felt under siege, but this is worse – this is different,” she said. “The possibility of our clinic closing is devastating. This is my life. This is my calling.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 1:01 PM with the headline "Louisiana abortion clinics brace for Supreme Court ruling."