'Fighting for one day': Louisiana abortion clinic still open
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — Fielding a call from a woman seeking an abortion, the director of Hope Medical Group for Women tried to answer as best she could.
Yes, federal protections for abortion had been overturned, she said. The clinic was still open — but there's a waiting list and a court hearing on Friday that could change everything, she added.
“We are still fighting,” clinic administrator Kathaleen Pittman told the woman before hanging up Wednesday.
By Pittman's own description, you have to be an optimist to work in abortion services. Now, with confused patients calling for help and a looming court date threatening to put an end to almost all abortions in the state, that optimism is being tested like never before.
For years, Louisiana's abortion clinics have operated under increasing layers of restrictions designed to limit who can get an abortion and when. Then the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that provided federal protection for abortions, leaving the decision up to individual states.
Like many states Louisiana has a trigger law designed to immediately halt abortions if Roe is overturned. But nearly two weeks after the June 24 ruling, the Shreveport clinic was still open and providing abortions to patients from all over Louisiana, as well as states like neighboring Texas and Mississippi.
The clinic filed for a temporary restraining order to allow the state’s three clinics to remain open, arguing that multiple trigger provisions in the law make it unclear exactly when the ban takes effect, and that the law’s medical exceptions are unclear.
A judge in New Orleans granted the temporary measure pending a Friday court hearing. The state’s attorney general appealed directly to the Louisiana Supreme Court but on Wednesday the...
