{"id":217972,"date":"2020-02-20T10:30:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T16:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=217972"},"modified":"2020-02-26T13:31:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T19:31:47","slug":"supreme-court-question-admitting-privileges-louisiana-abortionists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-question-admitting-privileges-louisiana-abortionists\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court takes on question of admitting privileges for Louisiana abortionists"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pro-lifers should keep an eye on the Supreme Court of the United States beginning March 4, 2020, as it begins hearing an important abortion-related case, currently referred to as <\/span>June Medical Services v. Phillips<\/span><\/i> (formerly <\/span>June Medical Services v. Gee<\/span><\/i>). The case<\/span> centers on a 2014 law in Louisiana known as <\/span>Act 620<\/span><\/a>, or \u201cThe Unsafe Abortion Act,\u201d which aims to ensure women who are injured during abortions are able to receive proper, consistent medical care by enforcing the requirement that physicians have admitting privileges. The defendants in the case are also challenging the idea of third party standing for abortion businesses who serve as plaintiffs in cases like this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Act 620, authored by Democratic Senator Katrina Jackson and signed in 2014, requires that abortionists have admitting privileges to a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion facility. Admitting privileges would allow for a patient’s consistency of care. A doctor with admitting privileges would be able to alert emergency room staff of a patient’s condition before the patient arrives — a crucial part of receiving timely care when it really matters. The law would also ensure the competency of abortionists, since hospitals review a doctor’s training and experience before allowing him or her to have admitting privileges. This would help protect women from bad doctors — who seem to be in abundance at Louisiana abortion facilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Center for Reproductive Rights, the Hope Medical Group for Women, and two abortionists have sued the state of Louisiana concerning this law and originally won their case when the District Court ruled the law to be unconstitutional. However, the <\/span>Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals<\/span><\/a> decided the law would stand. As it heads to the Supreme Court, it is the first abortion-related case to be heard by both Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both considered to be conservative-leaning judges.<\/span><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Trump administration joins others in asking Supreme Court to uphold Louisiana abortion law<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Abortion facilities in Louisiana have admitted they do not run background checks on the doctors they hire. <\/span>According to Alliance Defending Freedom<\/span><\/a>, Leroy Brinkley, the president of two of Louisiana’s three existing abortion facilities — <\/span>Delta Clinic in Baton Rouge and Women\u2019s Health Care Clinic in New Orleans<\/span><\/a> — testified, “I don’t judge the license. If they have a license and the state gave the license, it’s not for me to determine if they are capable,” adding that doing background checks on doctors isn’t within his “framework.”<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Amici Curiae <\/span>brief<\/span><\/a> in the case, the medical director at June Medical Services (the plaintiff in the case) admitted the same. \u201c<\/span>Just like Delta and Women\u2019s Health, the medical director at June Medical \u2018admits he neither performed background checks nor inquired into their previous training\u2019 before bringing in new doctors,\u201d the document reads.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of this, an <\/span>ophthalmologist (eye doctor) and a radiologist <\/span><\/i>were committing abortions at June Medical Services.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brinkley (from Delta and WHCC) brought on Dr. A. James Whitmore who perforated a woman’s uterus and lacerated the uterine artery. However, according to the previously mentioned <\/span>brief<\/span><\/a>, \u201c<\/span>A coworker testified that Dr. Whitmore \u2018would not let her call 911 because of possible media involvement.\u2019\u201d <\/span>The coworker called 911 anyway and doctors at the ER had to perform a complete hysterectomy on the woman.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another woman who underwent an abortion in Louisiana with Dr. David Lee Golden suffered an incomplete abortion. According to the Amici Curiae <\/span>brief<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

[Golden] callously abandoned a woman named Audrey D. when she experienced excruciating pain following a surgical abortion. \u201cHe told her he had to go somewhere\u201d but \u201cdid not return,\u201d so he had \u201cthe nurses give[ ] her some Tylenol\u201d and instruct her to \u201cgo home and lie down.\u201d… Dr. Golden suspected that \u201cthe fetal skull remained in the uterus,\u201d yet he \u201creleased her without performing an additional pelvic examination,\u201d \u2026 or telling her that \u201che suspected the abortion to be incomplete.\u201d <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The document further notes that after Audrey left, her \u201cpain got so bad\u201d that she went to the ER, where a \u201ctear in the uterus\u201d was found with \u201ca portion of the placenta protruding through it\u201d along with \u201ca large hematoma\u201d which contained \u201ca fetal head.\u201d Audrey had to have an emergency hysterectomy.<\/span><\/p>\n

“These examples illustrate the high cost of Louisiana abortion facilities’ medical incompetence and failure to screen doctors,” Alliance Defending Freedom wrote in the <\/span>brief<\/span><\/a> to the Court. “Women’s lives are endangered, and their ability to have children is ripped away. The costs are so great and the situation so dire that the legislature felt compelled to act.”<\/span><\/p>\n