Tuscaloosa AL Abortion Clinic Can Reopen, Federal Court Rules
Source: Rh Reality Check
A federal judge Thursday temporarily blocked an Alabama law that had forced one of the last remaining abortion clinics in the state, the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, to be closed since January.
The ruling came in the ongoing battle over targeted regulations of abortion providers (TRAP) laws in the state. In 2007, the Alabama State Board of Health issued the requirement for abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital or to contract with a local covering physician with such privileges. In 2013, Alabama enacted HB 57, which would have replaced this regulation by requiring that every physician performing abortions have admitting privileges at a local hospital, thus eliminating the alternative covering-physician arrangement.
Before HB 57 went into effect, the three clinics in the state relying on covering physicians brought a lawsuit challenging the admitting privileges requirement but not the covering physician requirement. A federal court found the requirement unconstitutional as it applied to those three clinics.
But that order did not apply to the West Alabama Women’s Center. Until December 2014, the center had no trouble complying with the admitting privileges requirement because its doctor, Louis Payne, had admitting privileges at an area hospital. But Dr. Payne retired in December 2014, and, although the center has found a replacement doctor, he does not have staff privileges at the local hospital. Nor has the center been able to find a covering physician—that is, a doctor who has local admitting privileges and who is willing to contract with the clinic.
Read more: http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/08/14/tuscaloosa-abortion-clinic-can-reopen-federal-court-rules/
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