Judge Temporarily Blocks Law That Could Close All Louisiana Abortion Clinics

NEW ORLEANS La. (Reuters) -- A federal judge Sunday temporarily blocked a Louisiana law that advocates say would likely have closed all five of the abortion clinics in the state. The measure, signed into law by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in June and due to take effect Sept. 1, would require doctors who perform abortions to have patient admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their practice.

However, the judge's ruling means that for the time being doctors can continue to perform legal abortions while seeking to obtain admitting privileges. A hearing will be held at a later date for the judge to make a more permanent ruling on the law.

"Plaintiffs will be allowed to operate lawfully while continuing their efforts to obtain privileges," U.S. District Judge John deGravelles wrote in the decision.

Abortion rights activists applauded the decision, the latest in a string of rulings against similar measures, saying it would give abortion doctors more time to seek the hospital privileges.

“Today’s ruling ensures Louisiana women are safe from an underhanded law that seeks to strip them of their health and rights," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which sued to block the law on behalf of three of the state's five clinics.

Louisiana is among 11 states that have passed similar laws, with courts recently ruling unconstitutional such measures in Alabama and Mississippi. Key parts of Texas law that would have shuttered most remaining clinics in that state was blocked by a federal judge on Friday.

Abortion rights campaigners, along with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association, say admitting privileges laws impose medically unnecessary requirements on doctors. Anti-abortion advocates have countered the measures are intended to protect women's health, though some have also lauded their effect of shuttering clinics.

Only one doctor who performs abortions in Louisiana currently has hospital admitting privileges, the Center for Reproductive Rights said. If all other doctors in the state are forced to stop performing abortions, that doctor, fearful for his safety, would stop carrying out the procedure, the group said.