In the first few months of the year, a handful of state legislatures have moved to curb abortions by imposing restrictions on admitting privileges and beefing up regulatory requirements on abortion clinics.
In North Dakota, Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) recently signed into law (S.B. 2305) a measure requiring any physician who performs abortions to have admitting and staff privileges at a nearby hospital. The new law also requires that the hospital allow abortions to take place in its facility.
When signing the law back in March, Gov. Dalrymple acknowledged that the additional requirement that hospitals must allow abortions to be performed on site would likely result in a legal showdown. "Nevertheless, it is a legitimate and new question for the courts regarding a precise restriction on doctors who perform abortions," he said in a statement.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple
The law goes into effect Aug. 1.
The Center for Reproductive Rights is planning to challenge the law in court. The group, which is seeking to overturn a similar law passed last year in Mississippi, said the requirement would shut down the state’s only abortion clinic – Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo – which provides reproductive health services to nearly 1,500 women each year.
Gov. Dalrymple also signed two other antiabortion measures into law, which are likely to be challenged in court. One would ban abortions performed solely for the purpose of gender selection or due to genetic abnormalities. The second would ban any abortions performed after a fetal heartbeat could be detected.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposed all three of the new North Dakota laws.
In a statement, ACOG officials said the three laws were the most recent examples of state legislatures regulating medical care without the benefit of scientific evidence.
"Legislators should not needlessly interfere in the patient-physician relationship or the practice of medicine," ACOG officials wrote. "ACOG, as an organization, joins other women’s health advocates in supporting the legal right of women to obtain an abortion and opposing laws that are dangerous, unscientific, and criminalize medical care. Physicians, not legislators, should be making medical decisions with North Dakota women about their care."
North Dakota lawmakers aren’t the only ones seeking to put tighter restrictions on abortions. North Carolina legislators are considering a bill (SB 308) with similar hospital admitting requirements. And Texas lawmakers are considering a bill (SB 537) that would require abortion clinics to conform to the same building requirements as those of ambulatory surgical centers. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America estimates that if enacted, that requirement would force many health centers to stop offering abortion services, dropping the number of health centers that perform abortions from 42 to 5 in Texas.
In Alabama, the state legislature passed a bill that includes both admitting privilege requirements and rules that abortion clinics meet the same building specifications as those of ambulatory surgical centers. Gov. Robert J. Bentley (R) is expected to sign the bill.
In Indiana, lawmakers have taken the ambulatory surgical center requirements a step further. The state legislature passed a bill imposing the surgical requirements on health centers even if they only perform nonsurgical abortions.