Louisiana Activists Fight Proposed Restrictions on Abortion Providers
Louisiana Activists Fight Proposed Restrictions on Abortion Providers
(does jinny boy decide if other services need more buildings and outlets--for example, liquor stores? or does he only care if women have more choices for exercising their autonomy?)
Louisiana abortion rights activists are fighting restrictions on abortion providers proposed last December by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH).
Under the administration of Governor Bobby Jindal, the DDH last week issued a letter to Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast refusing to allow its new state of the art clinic in New Orleans to perform abortions on the legal excuse that it did not show a need for a new facility to perform abortions in Louisiana. In 2012, Jindals administration passed a state law requiring abortion clinics to show that there is need for another clinic before applying for a license.
Governor Jindals has placed one obstacle after another in the way of Louisiana women seeking access to abortion or reproductive health services, said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. When clinics are closed unnecessarily womens health suffersespecially the health of low income women and young women.
The New Orleans Abortion Fund (NOAF), together with the Feminist Majority Foundation, has planned a campaign to oppose the regulations, which endanger womens health and safety. The FMF and NOAF released a petition demanding that the DHH rescind the regulations, which would place onerous restrictions on the five clinics that remain in Louisiana. FMF college campus activists will be circulating the petition throughout Louisiana.
The proposed restrictions are what are known as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws, and according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, are medically unnecessary requirements designed to reduce access to abortion. The regulations restrict a clinics ability to operate and provide clinics with little ability to adapt to unforeseen changes and circumstances and whats more troubling, they could cause confidentiality issues for both patients and staff.
http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/01/20/louisiana-activists-fight-proposed-restrictions-on-abortion-providers/