A Planned Parenthood facility in St. Paul, Minnesota.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson released a decision on Monday saying that a 2013 Alabama state law, which requires doctors at abortion clinics to have staff privileges at nearby hospitals, is unconstitutional because it places an “undue burden” on women who seek an abortion in the state.
The law, called Women’s Health and Safety Act, requires that a physician must be involved “in an abortion performed at an abortion or reproductive health center,” and includes many measures to ensure that women are provided safe reproductive health care. The measure that requires physicians to have staff privileges was intended to guarantee that women will be able to access care in the case that abortions lead to other complications. A similar measure has been passed by 10 other states.
Planned Parenthood Southeast, ACLU of Alabama, and other groups, however, sued the state, arguing that the measure prevents women from accessing abortion clinics at all. “The evidence compellingly demonstrates that the requirement would have the striking result of closing three of Alabama’s five abortion clinics,” Thompson’s decision read.
With only two abortion clinics left, the plaintiffs argued that women would be faced with a great obstacle to easily access places that guarantee abortion and reproductive care.
The measure would result in the “closing of three of Alabama’s five abortion clinics” because the four doctors located at these clinics argued that they would be unable to receive staff privileges.
Receiving staff privileges has several requirements. Primarily, most hospitals require the doctor to live or practice within a certain distance from the hospital. Many hospitals also require that “a doctor with [staff] privileges admit a certain number of patients or perform a certain number of procedures on a regular basis,” the ruling explained. The main reason for this is to “offer an opportunity for an existing member of the hospital’s medical staff to evaluate a doctor’s clinical skills.”
All of the four doctors at the abortion clinics in question fail to meet the geographic requirement, as all of them live outside of the city in which they practice abortion. Many of them live outside of the state of Alabama altogether—one doctor lives in Nigeria, and periodically makes trips to Atlanta, Georgia to perform abortions in Alabama; another lives in Chicago, Illinois; another in Georgia.
The number of abortions that many of these doctors perform also fails to meet the specified number of patients that hospitals require doctors to admit in order to receive the staff privileges.
“As the judge noted today, the justifications offered for this law are weak at best,” a Politico report quoted Louise Melling, who is the deputy legal director of ACLU.
However, opponents of abortion argue that such measures exist for the safety of women in abortion procedures.
"As a doctor, I firmly believe that medical procedures, including abortions, performed in Alabama should be done in the safest manner possible. This law ensures that if a complication arises there is continuity of treatment between doctor and patient. This ruling significantly diminishes those important protections," said Governor Robert Bentley according to the report.
There have been mixed decisions regarding this measure in different states. Mississippi recently also decided this measure is unconstitutional, while Texas upheld the law.
