International Business Times reports Louisiana could see an influx of women seeking abortions after a Tuesday court ruling set into motion the shutdown of more than half of Texas’ abortion clinics. But some worry Louisiana, with only five facilities and its own restrictive policies on women’s health care, won’t be able to support them.
“It has become very difficult for women in Louisiana to get abortions if they need them,” says Marjorie Esman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Louisiana branch in New Orleans. “To the extent that women from Texas are coming to Louisiana, it’s not going to be a lot easier here.”
About 9,900 people had abortions in Louisiana in 2014. As the laws in neighboring states have gotten stricter, Louisiana became one of two states where abortions increased in recent years, the Associated Press reported earlier this week. Michigan, where women fleeing strict laws in Ohio often visit for abortions, was the other state. Both Michigan and Ohio have laws requiring women to attend a counseling session where they get information discouraging them from having the procedure, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research center based in New York City.
Last year, 225 more Texas residents had abortions in Louisiana than did in 2013, according to data from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. With 886 residents having procedures, Texans comprised about 9% of the overall abortions in Louisiana in 2014.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ Tuesday decision to uphold parts of Texas’ HB 2 could send more abortion traffic into Louisiana. The federal court ruled that abortion facilities must meet the standards for “ambulatory surgical centers” and that their doctors must have the power to admit patients to local hospitals.
HB 2 was expected to shut down 10 of Texas’ 17 abortion clinics, the Dallas Morning News reports, leaving some women hundreds of miles from the nearest in-state facility.
Louisiana—recently named the most pro-life state in the nation—has abortion controversy of its own. State lawmakers here are also using the same legal tactics as Texas to try to limit access to abortion, says David Brown, a staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, a nonprofit legal organization based in New York City. He says a trial is set for later this month for portions of a lawsuit against HB 388, which would require abortion doctors to have admitting privileges within 30 miles of their clinics.
“If that law is upheld in a few weeks, the problems we’re seeing in Texas we’ll probably see in Louisiana—magnified,” Brown says. “It doesn’t seem like they can absorb limitless loads from Texas.”
Supporters of the laws in Texas and Louisiana say the new restrictions are needed to protect women’s health. Read the full story.
