Kentucky's last abortion clinic sues to stay open, by Deborah
Yetter, 3/30/17
Gov. Matt Bevin's
administration is seeking to shut down Kentucky's only abortion
provider, prompting a federal lawsuit by the clinic to block the move
it says would have “a devastating impact on women.”
Bevin’s administration has ordered
the EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville to stop providing abortions
starting Monday, claiming it lacks proper agreements for patient care in the
event of a medical emergency.
EMW's lawsuit, filed
Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Louisville, calls the
order "blatantly unconstitutional" and asks a federal judge to
bar the Bevin administration from revoking the EMW clinic's license.
"They've made it clear they won't
stop until no woman can get an abortion in Kentucky," said Donald L. Cox,
a lawyer for EMW. "It's just an attempt to ban abortion in Kentucky."
A Bevin spokeswoman did not respond
to a request for comment.
The state's announcement in a March
13 letter that it is revoking the license makes the EMW clinic the latest
enforcement target of the administration of Bevin, an anti-abortion Republican
who has called himself an “unapologetically
pro-life individual.”
MORE
COVERAGE
►Judge hears challenge to new Kentucky abortion law
►Defund Planned Parenthood bill passes Kentucky House
►Kentucky's last abortion clinic in long-running war
►Defund Planned Parenthood bill passes Kentucky House
►Kentucky's last abortion clinic in long-running war
Over the past year, the
Bevin administration has blocked abortions at Planned Parenthood of
Indiana and Kentucky's Louisville clinic and at an EMW clinic in Lexington over
licensure disputes, leaving EMW’s downtown Louisville clinic as Kentucky’s sole
abortion provider.
Officials with the state Cabinet for
Health and Family Services, which licenses abortion clinics, has argued
its actions are based on patient safety.
But EMW, joined in its lawsuit
by the American Civil Liberties Union, said the clinic already complies with
the law and says that if the state succeeds in forcing it to close,
“abortion will be effectively banned in the commonwealth.”
The lawsuit asks a federal
judge to temporarily block state efforts to stop abortions at EMW. It says
the clinic has patients scheduled and an abrupt shutdown would deprive
them of their right to the procedure.
The dispute with the state
involves “transfer agreements” that state law requires abortion clinics to have
with hospitals and ambulance services should a medical emergency arise for a
patient. Inspector General Robert Silverthorn, who oversees such licenses for
the cabinet, said in the letter to EMW that its transfer
agreements are deficient and don't adequately protect patients. But EMW, in its
lawsuit, said its transfer agreements comply with the law and were approved
last year by the cabinet during an annual inspection in which its license
was renewed through May 31.
The state's new finding that the
agreements are deficient amounts to a "bureaucratic sleight of
hand," said Brigitte Amiri, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU
Reproductive Freedom Project. "This is an attempt to ban abortion in
Kentucky, plain and simple. We are fighting to keep this from happening."
Silverthorn, in similar findings to
the enforcement action against EMW, last year rejected Planned
Parenthood’s transfer agreements as deficient because the clinic had
agreements with hospitals in Southern Indiana and Lexington. The
cabinet argued one was out of state and the other, in Lexington, was too far
away.
The state also argued that Planned
Parenthood's agreement with Louisville Emergency Medical Services to
transport patients is deficient because it doesn’t specifically identify the
hospital to which it would transport patients.
University of Louisville Hospital
last year backed out of a transfer agreement with Planned Parenthood to accept
patients, citing outside pressure, but said it would not turn away any patient
in an emergency.
Planned Parenthood claims
its transfer agreements meet all specifications of state law and has
appealed the cabinet’s denial of a license to an administrative law judge
with the cabinet, where it is pending.
Planned Parenthood briefly provided
abortions at the Louisville clinic in late 2015 and early 2016 before it agreed
to stop under orders from the state while it seeks to
resolve the licensure dispute. EMW closed a part-time clinic in Lexington in
January after the state sued it for operating without a license. The
clinic previously had operated as a doctor’s office and argued that as
such, it did not require a license as an abortion clinic. The clinic sought a
license, but its application was denied by the state.
The dispute comes amid EMW's legal
challenge to a new state law requiring doctors providing abortions to first
perform an ultrasound and attempt to show and describe the image of the fetus
to the patient. EMW and the ACLU argue the law passed in January by the General
Assembly is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge David Hale heard
arguments in the case last week but has not ruled.
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