Louisiana’s last three abortion clinics are leaving the state after the state Supreme Court upheld a near-total ban on abortion.
The Louisiana Supreme Court handed down the decision Friday, effectively ending any possibility of running an abortion clinic in the state. Staff at Louisiana’s last three clinics, Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, Women’s Health Care Center in New Orleans and Delta Clinic in Baton Rouge say they will be relocating to other states, according to WWNO.
Louisiana’s law bans abortions in all cases, carving out exceptions only for saving the life of the mother or for when a child would not survive birth.
Louisiana’s abortion advocates initially sued the state to prevent the abortion “trigger law” from taking effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June.
Abortion trigger laws were written to take effect if the Supreme Court ever overturned Roe. Louisiana is one of more than a dozen states that had a trigger law on the books.
Louisiana’s new law bans abortions in all cases, carving out exceptions only for saving the life of the mother or for when a child would not survive birth.
Pro-abortion groups argued the law was overly vague since it did not have a specific time for when it would take effect after Roe fell, however. While a judge did order a temporary stay on enforcement, the state Supreme Court’s ruling last week allowed it to take effect.
“I feel as if I’m in the Twilight Zone, and this dimension where nothing really makes sense,” Kathaleen Pittman, the administrator of the Shreveport clinic, told NWWO. “I’m just not ready to walk away.”